VfL Wolfsburg came close to staging a minor Champions League miracle but their 3-0 loss at Real Madrid in the last eight on Tuesday for a 3-2 aggregate defeat was a reflection of a season of missed opportunities, club officials said.
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The Wolves are unlikely to see any Champions League action next season, with a weeks-long domestic slump sending them down to eighth in the Bundesliga with five games left.
They came agonisingly close to staging a huge upset after stunning the 10-time European champions 2-0 in Germany in the first leg last week to go into the game at the Bernabeu brimming with confidence.
Real's Cristiano Ronaldo struck twice in two minutes early in the first half to level the tie and added a third goal from a free kick to complete a superb turnaround by the Spaniards.
"It was a bit of a reflection of our season," Wolfsburg sports director Klaus Allofs told reporters. "We seem to be making mistakes at all the wrong times."
Wolfsburg, last season's Bundesliga runners-up and German Cup winners, had enjoyed a solid start to their domestic campaign but gradually ran out of ideas and goals.
Champions League contenders at the halfway mark in the Bundesliga and cruising through the group stage by December, Wolfsburg hoped for a repeat of last season.
Instead, they managed just three league wins in 12 matches after the winter break to implode in the Bundesliga.
It was the same over the two ties against Real. They enjoyed a stellar first game but failed to pose a threat in the return encounter in what would have been the Germans' biggest success in Europe in their maiden quarter-final appearance.
Wolfsburg had only one good chance in the game with a Luiz Gustavo shot despite managing to contain Real's attack for about an hour after they took their two-goal lead.
"These are the fine differences that you cannot compensate for at the Bernabeu," Allofs said. "Overall it was just like we had predicted it. We needed a goal and we did not get it.
"On the one hand I am proud of the team's outstanding run in the competition but on the other we conceded silly goals."
The Wolves will need to recover quickly if they are not to miss out completely on European football next season, with the club six points off sixth place, the last to offer a Europa League spot.
"You don't get chances like the one we got against Real too often and unfortunately we wasted it," said winger Andre Schuerrle.
"This is very bitter."
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