Five reasons Champions League exit should leave Man City fans optimistic

City fans waking up in Madrid or Manchester, and wondering whether it was all a bad dream, probably don’t want to hear it right now. But the fact is that their team’s remarkable late collapse against Real Madrid carries plenty of positives.

In the bleary morning after another huge Champions League disappointment, desolation might be the default position for those supporters who want European glory, to add to the domestic dominance the Blues have established in the last five years.

But life goes on, and there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful. After all, you could be United fans, lacking the will to even protest at their club’s descent into apathy and mediocrity.

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So cheer up, Blues, take a deep breath and get ready for four league games that could write another great chapter in the history of your club. Here are five reasons to look back on the semi-final with pride and hope.

Even the staunchest Real Madrid fan would accept that the best team lost over the two legs. Only City’s lack of full-backs in the first leg, plus their inability to convert chances - something that the addition of a top-quality striker or two should address this summer - has cost them.

City might have won that first leg 7-3 or 8-3, but for Karim Benzema’s ability to conjure a goal from nothing and an incredibly unfortunate handball, the Blues would be planning a final showdown with Liverpool.

Most City fans would place the Premier League title above the Champions League, and the Blues are now just four games away from another big slice of history.

Only four clubs in English football history have won the title in four out of five years - Aston Villa in the 1890s, Arsenal in the 1930s, Liverpool in