Bernardo Silva conceded Manchester City were left in a “dark place” after Real Madrid’s 3-0 win left them staring down the barrel of an early Champions League exit.

Federico Valverde’s first-half treble put City to the sword in Wednesday’s last-16 first leg, leaving Pep Guardiola’s side with a sizeable task for the return meeting at the Etihad Stadium next Tuesday.

It could have been worse for City, too, if not for Vinicius Junior seeing a spot-kick saved after the Brazilian was felled by Gianluigi Donnarumma in the second period.

Silva acknowledged his side’s shortfalls as Guardiola looks to mastermind an unlikely comeback, after suffering his joint-heaviest defeat in the first leg of a knockout tie in this competition.

“It is difficult to speak about it because I would need to watch it again. My feeling on the pitch was that we started the game well,” the Portugal midfielder told TNT Sports.

“The environment we could not control, and I think my team let the emotions change the game. We felt comfortable and were finding the right spaces, but after conceding the first one we lost completely the control.

“We stopped controlling transitions and second balls. When you play against Real Madrid with the quality they have, you pay the price.”

2 – This is the first time that two English clubs have lost by 3+ goals on the same day in European Cup/UEFA Champions League history:

PSG 5-2 Chelsea
Real Madrid 3-0 Manchester City

Humbling. pic.twitter.com/DW4iJkw1um

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 11, 2026

City have lost six of their 10 away games in the Champions League since the start of last season (W3 D1) – only Club Brugge (seven) have lost more in the competition in this period.

But Guardiola may put this result down to a freak performance after seeing his side concede three first-half goals for just the fifth time in his managerial career (four with Man City, one at Bayern Munich).

“It is a tough stadium to play at. We are used to playing at these stadiums because playing at Anfield and St James’ Park is very tough,” Silva continued. “You need to go through these moments to become better, and today was just a learning game for the whole team.

“It is quite frustrating [we didn’t score], even though we believe it is still possible because in football a lot of things can happen, at half-time we were saying: ‘The situation is bad’. There were a lot of things that shouldn’t have happened, but with one goal, you are in the tie.

“At 3-0, it makes it a bit more difficult. Now it feels really bad, now it feels really dark. Tomorrow is another day, and for sure, next week we will go to the game thinking we have a chance.

“Right now is the moment to reflect and see what we didn’t do right. Then next week, when we are preparing, we will be hopeful we can do something.”

Guardiola echoed Silva’s sentiment, even if he felt City’s performance could have merited a narrower scoreline.

“I had a feeling that we were better than the result said…but the result is here. We have one week and then we will see them at the Etihad,” he told TNT Sports.

“Now we recover mentally and physically and go to West Ham. We will see. We will be with our supporters – I’m pretty sure they will come – and in football, you never know. We will try.”