Sir Alex Ferguson felt that his UEFA Champions League opponents Bayer Leverkusen were "lucky" after they ended his dream of seeing Manchester United lift the European Cup at Hampden Park.
The German side held United to a 1-1 draw on the night at the BayArena, and the 3-3 aggregate scoreline was enough to send the hosts through to the dream final in Glasgow that Ferguson saw as his destiny for this season.
United had chances cleared off the line in the closing stages, as they chased a vital second goal that would have added to Roy Keane's first-half strike but Ferguson's sticking point was the goal that Oliver Neuville scored in the dying moments of the first half.
The United boss believed that the goal had come after the two minutes of added time at the end of the first half.
He said: "I think in any game you need that bit of luck and there were four opportunities cleared off the line.
"That's why we needed that little bit of luck, particularly with the last one with Diego Forlan's great lob and the defender has done fantastic to clear it.
"Leverkusen got that luck tonight with their equalising goal. That was the decisive moment right before half-time and it might have been more than the two minutes.
"That was a terrible blow for us to go in at 1-1 at half-time after looking at that point that we were going to score more goals.
"That was the decisive feature and if we had gone in at 1-0 we would have won the game.
"For 15 minutes after half-time they showed the benefit of that luck and they showed the confidence of being rescued by that goal at half-time.
"We took 15 minutes to get going after that in the second half."
Ferguson admitted that going out to Leverkusen was the worst feeling he had experienced in the Champions League since losing in 1997 to another German side, Borussia Dortmund, the eventual champions that year.
"It doesn't matter where the final is and if you lose in any semi-final it is a disappointing occasion," he said.
"I think it's the worst defeat losing in the semi-finals. There's not a lot you can say to the players in these situations and there's a lot of disappointment understandably."
In complete contrast, the Leverkusen coach, Klaus Toppmoller made it clear how he felt having guided the relatively small German club to the final of Europe's biggest club competition.
He said: "This is a time for cigarettes and drink and then tomorrow I will go and see Real Madrid play Barcelona. This is a dream come true.
"Jokingly I said I would like to go and congratulate Real Madrid in person on their 100th anniversary and now it looks like that will happen in the final. This really is unbelievable and Manchester United are a fantastic team, but we have made the dream come true."
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