The home side controlled the first half after scoring an early goal through Sandro Tonali before Nicolas Jackson was sent off to leave us with ten men heading into the break.

The Blues were the better side for the majority of the second period and had chances through the likes of Reece James, Cole Palmer and Cucurella, however, against the run of play, the Magpies were able to secure the result with a late strike from Bruno Guimaraes.

Despite the frustrating result, the full-back felt there were positives to take from a battling second-half display as we went in search of an equaliser a player down.

‘We are disappointed,’ Marc began. ‘We know it was an important game and we lost. We are upset.

‘Now is the moment to show character. Everything we have been building towards, we need to show now. We need to forget this game, take the positives, we need to be proud of our effort when we played with ten men and we should be happy with our effort.’

The 26-year-old’s focus is now on securing the best possible results heading into the final part of the season. He continued: ‘We played very well at points and we were in the game until the end and we created chances. Now we need to forget this game because we have an important game on Friday.’

With two crucial Premier League games to come against Manchester United and fellow top-five chasers Nottingham Forest, Cucurella recognises that there is still plenty left to play for.

‘Every game in this league is tough and the table shows it's still tight,’ he added.

‘This is one of the best leagues in the world. I think we are preparing for this and we need to show we can play under pressure if we want to achieve our objectives.

‘We need to play the game that we planned and show we are ready to play in these types of games.'