Manchester United defender Diogo Dalot has reacted to a painful night for the Reds, as we were pipped to the Europa League title by Tottenham Hotspur in Bilbao.
It was a tight, attritional game for much of the 90 minutes, which was decided, in the end, by a scrambled first-half goal from Brennan Johnson.
Dalot was honest in his assessment of a heartbreaking night in the Basque Country for the Reds.
“It’s hard to take," the Portugal international admitted. “A really tough result, obviously, not being able to win a trophy that could give some joy, especially to the fans. Seeing them at the end hurts a lot, so a really, really tough night.”
Ruben Amorim's side piled on the pressure in the latter stages of the game, at one point denied by an acrobatic goal-line clearance from Micky van de Ven, but were unable to breach Spurs' defence, in a game that Dalot feels was a microcosm of our season.
“I think it sums up a little bit our season, a rollercoaster of emotions during the game," he continued. “But we kept fighting until the end, you could see, we were on top of their final third, trying with crosses, trying with everything; they do goal-line clearances.
"So, it just sums up what we’ve been doing this season, lack of scoring goals, and that ultimately could push us to different results in a lot of games, and today was one more.”
But setting aside his own personal disappointment, it was those supporters who have travelled to Bilbao and fans watching at home that sat in the front of the 26-year-old's mind.
He said: “It hurts when you see the fans like this, they’ve been with us every single time after the poor results that we had and the difficult season that we had.
"They don’t deserve it, and if it doesn’t hurt you, if you don’t feel it, then you should not be here.
“So, it’s time for reflection, everyone needs to reflect. And when it’s time to make decisions, make decisions. When it’s time to act, we act. And when it’s time for us to go on the pitch, we win games. I think that’s the ultimate change that needs to happen.”