David Silva insists Manchester City's players were rocked by their Champions League flop this season.

City's 1-1 home draw with Real Madrid was a decent display but not enough to keep them in Europe's top club competition as the damage had already been done in twice failing to beat Ajax.

And Silva, 26, who faces Everton today, recalled to The Sun: "To go out of the Champions League was terrible. It's a real pain and has damaged us a lot.

"The dressing room was a very unhappy place after the Real game and in our two games since, at Chelsea and Wigan, it has been very hard to recover our morale.

"It wasn't only the coach Roberto Mancini who was sad.

"For instance, after our defeat by Ajax in Amsterdam I saw a lot of broken people in that dressing room. That was a hard night. Little things cost us in Europe."