The yellow confetti had barely settled on the Gdansk pitch and Villarreal's celebrations when the inquest into Manchester United's defeat began.
A penalty shootout was all that separated them from glory in the Europa League final but United —and their manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer — are only too familiar with the fine margins that define success and failure in football.
A fourth season without a trophy means the club are mired in the worst barren spell since Sir Alex Ferguson's turbulent early years at Old Trafford.
For Solskjaer, what could have been a summer of quiet satisfaction will now involve a significant amount of soul-searching.