Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany led the rallying cries as the Premier League champions assessed the damage done by their 2-1 Champions League home defeat to Barcelona on Wednesday.
Kompany, like many of his teammates, claimed City could turn the tables on the Catalan giants after escaping from the first leg of their round of 16 tie trailing by a single goal.
It looked like being a far more harrowing night at the Etihad Stadium as Lionel Messi and co. outplayed City in the first half, scoring twice through Luis Suarez and threatening several more.
Dani Alves hit the bar, Joe Hart denied Suarez another and Neymar had an effort cleared off the line, while Messi was almost unplayable.
But City recovered after the break, pulling one back through Sergio Aguero and -- after surviving the sending-off of Gael Clichy -- they can look to Hart's injury-time penalty save from Messi as a source for momentum.
Kompany said: "It was a bad first half but definitely we were very hopeful at the start of the second half. That is what we should look at and say is what we need to do when we go and play them over there. Of course there is hope.
"We were due some luck and Hart is a top goalkeeper. He did what he had to do and we have hope."
Clichy was dismissed for two bookable offences in the second half, prolonging City's disappointing run of red cards against Barcelona.
City had players sent off in both legs when they met the Spanish side at the same stage last year, in a tie they lost 4-1 on aggregate.
Kompany, 28, said: "You want to play games with 11 men. It has been happening a lot for us. Really what we need to try to do is finish a game with 11 men and see how that goes."
Spanish playmaker David Silva, who set up Aguero's goal, is also hopeful the tie can be retrieved but did not hide from the fact City were second best for the majority of the game.
City travel to the Nou Camp for the second leg on March 18, and the 29-year-old said: "If we play like we did in the second half, we can go through, but we have to get better.
"In the first half, we weren't good -- they were much better. They were much more cohesive than us on the pitch, picking up all the loose balls. Until the goal we were in it but once they scored we were bad.
"Second half, though, we got better. We had chances to equalise but once the red card came, we couldn't do more."
Defender Pablo Zabaleta was penalised for the late foul on Messi that led to the penalty, but thanked Hart for his late save afterwards.
Hart also hopes the team can take full advantage of the reprieve his save afforded them, saying: "Hopefully it proves to be important, as the open goal [Messi missed] just after it. I won't decorate it -- the save wasn't that good, but hopefully these little things can turn tides."
