The Manchester City dressing room was 'angry' after the Real Madrid collapse. They sure looked it as they trudged off and into the dressing room. And again when they left the Etihad.
But as City woke up on Wednesday, that anger must turn into the belief Ruben Dias implored his teammates to find ahead of the second leg.
And then the same players must forget everything about Madrid and next week's second leg. There is a huge fixture first on Saturday that could make or break their top four hopes - Newcastle are behind City in fifth only by goal difference and a gap would be a significant boost to their Champions League qualification hopes.
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"Once we’ve reviewed it, digested it and we’ve seen the game clearer – we’ll have a better picture and better vision for going forward," Stones reflected. We have to be very self-critical and maybe have some tough discussions between us and try and put things right."
Those discussions should centre around the first 30 minutes against Real that looked so promising.
John Stones was waltzing around the midfield like he was in Istanbul, casually against the best team in the world. Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake were throwing themselves infront of everything. Josko Gvardiol was setting up goals and keeping Rodrygo quiet at the same time, and Manu Akanji was blocking Vinicius on the other side.
The four centre-backs worked in 2023 and it looked to be the route out of City's rut in 2025. But then Akanji went off, the system folded, and Madrid took advantage.
Guardiola turned to Mateo Kovacic to see out the game which proved to be a mistake as his kung-fu kick in injury time was the first domino to fall in a calamitous move. If Nico Gonzalez was either fitter or longer into his City career, maybe he would have been the option to come on instead.
Stones looked good in the first half because he had Akanji and Gvardiol pushing inside to support him. It resulted in a narrow game, but it worked. When Kovacic came on, he was on his own in a one-on-three midfield mismatch.
Against Newcastle, Stones could well be rested ahead of the second leg in Madrid. The logical replacement should not be Kovacic, but Gonzalez.
For Kovacic, who has been a valiant soldier on his own at number six despite starting the season asking for a partner, Madrid was one mistake too many and now City have a replacement in the ranks. This season has been a case of what could have been, with a Kovacic-Rodri partnership looking on the cards before Rodri's injury.
If Akanji is out, then Rico Lewis or Matheus Nunes can deputise in an imperfect swap, and Gonzalez can offer the protection Stones did while moving forward like Kovacic didn't.
It isn't ideal, but if Guardiola wants to replicate those first 30 minutes this week with different personnel, then he could do far worse than turn to his new £50m man.
"We know we have to be sharp at the back, Stones continued. "It’s about us dampening their flow in the final third and how we use the game and control it.
"Individually, we’ve got to recognise certain situations in these big games – maybe to slow the game down or go more direct. We let two situations get on top of us from simple things that we’re used to doing. We have to find the solution fast and put it right.
"There are a lot of positives in there but it’s difficult to look at them when you feel so low. We’ve got to look at ourselves and hold ourselves accountable.”
First step to putting things right vs Madrid is doing it against Newcastle. As Stones says, the solution isn't as far away as they think it is.
