'We'll be back,' vows Nicaise

Benjamin Nicaise told UEFA.com that R. Standard de Liège's young team should be proud of this season's European adventure after finally being halted by Hamburger SV on Thursday.

Standard had clinched a UEFA Europa League berth after a last-gasp strike from goalkeeper Sinan Bolat in the UEFA Champions League group stage, and they then saw off FC Salzburg and Panathinaikos FC before coming unstuck in the quarter-finals against a Hamburg team determined to play in the 12 May final in their own stadium.

"There's always a winner and loser in football, and it's us tonight," said a philosophical Nicaise, who at 29 is one of the elder heads in a youthful lineup. "We have a very young squad, and a club inexperienced in European competition.

"We've just played a club whose budget is ten times superior than ours. We believed, but when you come up against a team that's stronger than you, there's no shame in getting knocked out. The dream stops here. It's a little brutal, but that's the way it is."

Following a valiant 2-1 defeat in the first leg in Germany, Standard kicked off the return at the Maurice Dufrasne stadium hopeful of springing a surprise. However, two goals from Mladen Petrić – the second a superb overhead kick – and José Paolo Guerrero's late third rendered Igor De Camargo's equaliser on the night little more than a footnote as Hamburg eased into the last four.

"In the first leg, we could have scored a second goal, and that would have allowed us to be more relaxed tonight," said midfielder Nicaise with a hint of regret. "We didn't play well in the first half, and conceded a goal just after we'd equalised. It was an exceptional goal. When you come up against players of the talent they have then you can expect to concede some good goals, but you have to say that it was a wonderful strike."

Domenico D'Onofrio's men can now devote their energies to giving themselves the chance to improve on their continental exploits next season. A fraught domestic season, however, has left the Belgian champions needing to pick their way through the Eerste Klasse's testing play-off system to do so.

"We've got a real uphill task ahead of us to try and qualify for the Europa League next season," admitted Nicaise, whose side have taken three points from their two play-off contests to date. "We have just one competition left. We have to give everything in that and try and get ourselves into the Europa League, because once you've tasted European competition you don't want to miss out on it the following season."