Diego Forlan scored an extra-time winner to floor Roy Hodgson's brave battlers 2-1 in Hamburg.
After rallying from the hammer blow of Forlan's first-half opener, levelling through Simon Davies, the Cottagers' hopes of marking the biggest night in their history with the biggest trophy they have ever won lingered long into the Hamburg night, almost to the point of penalties.
But just as he did at Liverpool in the semi-final three weeks ago, Forlan was to have the final word, proving yet again what an aberration in his career those years at Manchester United were.