It's a knockout

It was always going to be an extremely tall order. Part of the problem was that expectations were so high - probably too high. It was almost taken for granted that we'd beat Barcelona (after all, we'd done it in 1997, and in some style) and so all we had to do was hope that an under-strength Leverkusen side who had lost all five of their second group phase matches could somehow deny Inter a victory. We played well (on another night Bellamy could have got a hatful) but in the end ran out of steam, punished cruelly for two bad defensive lapses by a very professional and experienced side - but our exit from the Champions' League was already confirmed by Inter's comfortable win in Germany. The end of the match marked the end of the road, and precipitated just the sort of patronising media platitudes I'd been expecting - "It's been a lovely adventure" etc etc.

So - has it left me gutted? Not really, no. I feel proud, more than anything. We surpassed all initial expectations and survived being repeatedly ignored by ITV schedulers and written off by pundits who seemed to think we were just in it for the ride; we played with a tremendous sense of spirit and resolve; we genuinely rattled some very big-name teams; we enjoyed some spectacular evenings of edge-of-the-seat entertainment. Most important of all, though, our young players (of whom there are many) gained invaluable experience for the future. We'll be back, you can be guaranteed of that.