Paris Saint-Germain head coach Mauricio Pochettino has admitted that it was a "hard blow to take" after watching his team crash out of the Champions League in dramatic fashion on Wednesday evening.
Facing Real Madrid in the second-leg of their last-16 showdown, the French giants were 1-0 up from the first-leg in Paris last month. They doubled their advantage on aggregate a few minutes before half-time through Kylian Mbappe and they were in complete control of the contest.
But despite continuing to control the game after half-time, PSG collapsed in the space of 17 minutes, conceding a hat-trick of goals from Madrid striker Karim Benzema. He pounced on some slack PSG defending and made them pay, scoring his second and third goals of the night in the space of just two minutes.
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That was enough for Madrid to win the tie 3-2 on aggregate and progress to the quarter-finals, joining Liverpool, Manchester City and Bayern Munich. For PSG, however, it has left them to reflect on another Champions League failure.
For Pochettino, who remains a leading contender to take over at Manchester United ahead of next season, it was a huge dent in PSG's season. However, he has called for everyone connected with the club to keep calm.
"The present is all I can deal with," said Pochettino. "As for the future, what will be will be.
"We play to compete and to win. It's a hard blow to take but we have to keep a calm head now."
On the match itself, Pochettino accepted that his players were guilty of committing costly errors. They collapsed defensively and Madrid made them pay in the worst possible way.
He added: "The first goal completely changed the game. For an hour, we were better than Real Madrid.
"The atmosphere changed in the stadium. We made some mistakes after that, we can't say we didn't.
"The worst feeling is that we were the better side, but we lost the tie in ten minutes. Paris Saint-Germain have been chasing the Champions League for a number of years now.
"I'm really disappointed, upset - but these things can happen. The next few weeks are not going to be easy."
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