FCB in shock: ‘We had one hand on the cup’

Sleep proved elusive. “I couldn't close my eyes," Thomas Müller wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday morning. “I still can't believe we didn't win. So bitter! Football can be cruel!" It's highly doubtful whether anyone involved found any meaningful rest – and if anyone did manage an hour or two’s shut-eye, he or she will have woken up in a daze. The shock was gone, but the pain remained.

“I went through it all in 1999, when we lost so dramatically in Barcelona. That was unbelievably brutal, but I almost have the impression this evening is somehow even more bitter, brutal and basically also unnecessary. The pain is unbelievable,” Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said in his speech to the post-match banquet. His words will have resonated with FCB fans everywhere. “It's an absolute nightmare," agreed Christian Nerlinger.