Man City's Double Treble quest could still disintegrate into nothing after penalty heartbreak against Real... Pep Guardiola must rally his troops - but a crucial week has just got bigger, writes JACK GAUGHAN

Maybe not prophetic – not at this stage, anyway – but Bernardo Silva did fire a warning earlier in the week. A warning of what lay around the corner. A warning that a potential Treble could quickly disintegrate into nothing.

Pep Guardiola has been telling his players recently to just focus on extending the season by one more week. Each week, one more week. 

After the thrilling 3-3 draw in the Bernabeu, and then a couple of results wildly swinging the Premier League title race in Manchester City’s favour, talking about the possibility of winning it all again was certainly justified.

Silva preferred to urge caution. While admitting that the idea of recreating history acted as a motivational tool, he talked about the prospect of ‘losing all three competitions’ in the space of a few days. 

It can happen, even to this team, and the crushing Champions League shootout defeat by a Real Madrid they had pummelled would ordinarily take some time to recover from emotionally.

City do not have the luxury of time. This is not one you can sleep off on a summer holiday. Chelsea await at Wembley on Saturday. Cole Palmer’s Chelsea. 

Brighton in the league at the Amex next Thursday. Neither looked particularly appealing as the sun rose over the Etihad on Thursday morning.

There are two tricks Guardiola can choose from here. Kid the squad into believing that Real didn’t happen. 

Forget it completely. Or use it, take that anger and disappointment out on those who now stand in their way on the domestic front. 

Perhaps the latter might be more suitable because, for the majority of their home second leg, City were superb.

Not the hurricane of last year’s 4-0 demolition job on Carlo Ancelotti’s shellshocked Galacticos but still the better, more progressive side. 

Just missing the last pass, a cross slightly too floaty for Erling Haaland, the Kevin De Bruyne chance over the bar. 

The margins were truly fine on a night when Europe’s premier teams touched foreheads with contrasting styles – one jabbing, the other swaying - and that is something to hold on to. 

Magnanimous in defeat, Guardiola couldn’t fault his players. He did, however, concede that ‘recovery is easier when you win’.

‘We’ll see tomorrow,’ he said. ‘We will see how people react. It’s the semi-final of the FA Cup and we will try to compete.’

The title race is now in their hands and they are still aiming to become the first team ever to lift four in a row. And they do have form for responding to continental heartbreak. 

Four days after the late capitulation in the 2022 semi-final in Madrid, Newcastle were slapped for five. 

Guardiola would take that again.

Silva was right and this now actually becomes a bigger week than had they prevailed on Wednesday night.