Bernardo Silva admitted that the pain of crashing the club World Cup is comparable to leaving the Champions League after the shock-worship of Manchester City by Al-Hilal.
The men of Pep Guardiola were left shocked after the Saudi Arabian side won a breathless 4-3 extra-time victory in Orlando.
City came twice from behind, but was finally overcome by a filthy goal from Marcos Leonardo after 112 minutes.
City has received an estimated £ 37.8 million and received more a break for the Premier League season, so it is not all downfall and gloom, but Silva was disappointed.
“It feels a bit like leaving the Champions League, yes,” he admitted.
'Nobody wanted to lose, we are very used to not having vacations because the schedule is crazy. But when we are in a competition, we take it very seriously and we had a lot of ambition for this club world cup and we wanted to win it.
'There was always a sense of danger that came from them when they recovered the ball in transition and their counters. The amount of time we allowed them to run was bad for us, they punished us.
'We let them walk far too often, we did not manage the attacking transitions as well as we should have and we had chances, we scored three goals and we could have scored five or six.
'Most teams that beat us play in this way. We are very used to playing these kinds of teams. We played against teams for eight or nine years and we have not managed those situations.
'I have had many disappointments and many great things happen to me in my career. So whatever happened in this competition, in a month when we start the Premier League, we will forget and concentrate on a great season.
'We have also had many frustrations in the past and we have succeeded in coming back. We are going to try to do that again, knowing that we have a lot of competition, but we are going to work very hard. '
Silva opened the score within the first 10 minutes – as City had done in each group stage – but the game unraveled in the second half.
Marcos Leonardo equalized early in the second half after a dazzling maze-like run of Malcom who set alarm bells about the potential of Al-Hilal.
Minutes later Malcom doubled the lead of Al-Hilal after a single left him one-on-one with Nummeron, but Erling Haaland answered almost immediately with a self-range strike.
After 90 minutes it was 2-2, so extra time was needed to arrange the affair, and it smelled in drama.
Former Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly rose above the crowd to bring a header from a corner four minutes after the restart.
Phil Foden hit back with a volley after a nice curly chip about the defense of Rayan Cherki, but Al-Hilal had the last smile when Marcos Leonardo squeezed his second home.
City had formidable this tournament that he had beaten Juventus 5-2 days earlier, but had their wounds lick with a fresh injury.
Rodri replaced Ilkay Gundogan after 53 minutes, but had to come off with another blow in extra time, but only recently came back from a debilitating knee injury that required an operation and forced him to miss most of last season.
Pep Guardiola said: 'Eventually we have to score and be clinical. They didn't make much in the first half, we could not finish that. I felt that we could continue.
'We have allowed them to make transitions [but] We have made a lot. It's a shame, we have been on an incredible journey together [here] And in a good place. The atmosphere was really good, I can't thank Manchester City enough and especially the players for training and how they played. '