There's always a tweet, and sadly for Jack Grealish his one was very quickly found on Wednesday evening.
The Manchester City substitute could have been the hero for his side in the Champions League semi-final at Real Madrid as he almost scored twice in the game's closing moments, first seeing an effort cleared off the line and then having a shot deflected narrowly wide.
And the England man would soon come to regret his missed chances.
Goals in the 90th and 91st minutes from Real substitute Rodrygo brought the Spanish side level on aggregate, before Karim Benzema's penalty won it in extra-time.
Grealish and his City teammates were left shattered, and it didn't take long for his pain to be enjoyed by many online.
An old tweet from April 2014 quickly emerged, with Grealish simply writing 'Hala Madrid' along with a series of Spanish flag emojis.
Harsh, yes. But also a bit funny.
Just over eight years ago Grealish was just a hugely promising 18-year-old on the books at Villa, and the date of the tweet shows that he was simply enjoying Real's 1-0 win over Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final first leg, when the goal came from a certain Mr Benzema.
Speaking after the match, Grealish's manager Pep Guardiola said: “We were close. The players gave everything. We were so close but we couldn’t do it. In the history of football, this happens. With the people supporting them, it’s more difficult.
“I had defeats in the Champions League, tough defeats when we could not reach the final, so there's no doubt it's hard for us. We can't deny we were so close to the Champions League final.
“We didn't play well in the first-half but it's normal in this competition. It has happened many times in their history.
“They put a lot of players in the box, all of them crosses, and they scored two goals. We didn't suffer much until they scored, but we didn't play our best.
“We were close. We were close. But at the end, we could not reach. It is simple. The first half, we did not have game. We were not good enough. But we did not suffer much. When we scored the goal we were better. Our tempo, our game, our players were comfortable."
Real will now face Liverpool in the final later this month, with City still going toe-to-toe with the Reds in the Premier League.
