Jaws hit the floor afterwards. A disconsolate collection of players. Manchester City were shell-shocked, commiserated by around 300 friends and family. The feeling lingered long into the night and on the plane back.
That it felt a little bit like Lyon — when they lost in the quarter-finals of last season’s Champions League — was the most damning aspect of the weekend: the same old queries over team selection, the same old collective errors contributing to their downfall.
This has been City in Europe: performances to make their supporters believe, only for them to be left dumbfounded by the reasons behind subsequent failure.