Siyabonga Ngezana's manager at FCSB has issued an apology following his side's UEFA Champions League heartbreak on Tuesday night.
The Romanian outfit suffered a 3-2 defeat – losing 4-3 on aggregate – to Sparta Praha in the second leg of their third qualifying round on Tuesday, destroying the side's hopes of competing in the UCL this season.
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The South African centre-back started the encounter next to Joyskim Dawa, a partnership that has recently received much praise.
The African duo, however, could not stop Veljko Birmancevic from scoring a double and Lukas Haraslin netting LASK's third goal in the 37th minute.
FCSB fought back with two goals in the second half, but this would prove to be too little to save their hopes of participating in the esteemed continental competition this season.
The side would have progressed to the final round of qualification, but will now compete in the play-offs to secure a spot in this season's UEFA Europa League instead.
Speaking after the game, FCSB manager Elias Charalambous directed a heartfelt apology to the club's supporters, and highlighted the team's second-half performance as one of the best since his arrival.
"In football, the small details, especially at this level, make the difference," the 43-year-old said, per Spotmedia.
"Because the second half was perhaps the best half of the team since I came here.
"I'm sorry for the fans that we didn't win, because we they helped a lot today. We were close, because we pressed the opponent in the second half.
"We gave everything on the field, but this is football, only one team wins, and today we weren't."
Charalambous went on to encourage his players to hold their heads up high despite the defeat, and look towards trying to qualify for the UEL.
"Unfortunately for us, we didn't manage to go to the next round to fight for the Champions League," the coach added.
"It was hard today. Especially since they were leading 3-0 at halftime and we knew it would be all the more difficult.
"But in the second half we did everything perfectly and managed to score two goals and we could even score the third.
"We could have taken the match to extra-time, but we didn't succeed. It's over, but that's life in football.
"Now we have to hold our heads high. We can't stop here, we're moving on to try to take the team to the Europa League."
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The side will now face Austrian outfit LASK in a UEL play-off encounter, with the first leg of the tie scheduled to take place on Thursday, 22 August.