Manchester City deservedly won 2-1 on the night but went out of the Uefa Cup at the quarter final stage 4-3 on aggregate to Hamburg at Eastlands. History was always against Manchester City - only ever coming back from a two goal deficit in Europe once, whilst Hamburg boss Martin Jol, during his tenure at Tottenham, had won all his Premier League encounters against City.
Blues boss Mark Hughes wanted the fans to act as 12th man, and for the opening ten minutes the near capacity crowd of over 47,000 waved their inflatable bananas (don't ask!) and generated a tremendous atmosphere.
The team responded, putting Hamburg under pressure immediately.
Micah Richards stumbled when put through, then the visitors keeper Frank Rost hit a dreadful clearance against his own player prompting a goalmouth scramble.
But City's failing this season has been at the back, not their attacking intent.
On 9 minutes Jonathan Pitroipa crossed from the right and when the ball broke loose Jose Paolo Guerrero reacted first to slide the ball past Shay Given.
Now it was the turn of the vociferous Hamburg supporters to let their voices be heard.
Ironically whilst the home crowd were at their quietest City equalised within two minutes.
Elano's cross was adjudged to have been handled by Piotr Trochowski and the Brazilian waited for the German protests to die down before slotting home the penalty.
But Hamburg, as shown in their 3-1 first leg victory, are not a bad side and they looked comfortable on the ball keeping possession well.
City continued to press but lacked the cutting edge to create any meaningful chances and seemed incapable of remaining onside.
Whilst at the other end Trochowski's long range effort was palmed over by Given.
A cheeky back heel by Felipe Caicedo almost put the home side ahead and Stephen Ireland hit the side netting.
But the nearest to a goal came just before the break when Elano's tremendous free kick crashed against the German's cross bar and bounced to safety.
City began the second period, as the first, with an early goal.
Caicedo showed quick feet in the area and created space to finish and reduce the aggregate score to 4-3 in Hamburg's favour.
Moments later the Ecuador striker had an even easier chance but blazed over. Elano then curled a free kick against the post.
Robinho poked a weak effort straight at the keeper and Caicedo had a goal disallowed for offside.
If Hamburg were rocking then the home crowd were bouncing.
Yet City failed to keep the momentum going and Hamburg gradually regained their composure.
As the home side ran out of ideas the German's came more into the game and were handed a boost when City skipper Richard Dunne collected a second yellow card for obstruction and was dismissed with 16 minutes remaining.
When man of the match Elano was replaced by Dean Sturridge it was too much for some home supporters who booed Mark Hughes' decision.
Richards then had a chance to take the game into extra time but fired over as City poured forward in the closing minutes .
There was four added minutes of time but Hamburg comfortably held out to dump City out of the Uefa Cup.
Blues boss Mark Hughes looked to the positives from the game.
"The manner of the performance, if not the end result, was very satisfying and shows what we are capable of.
"That's the sort of performance we need to be putting in on a regular basis, but that's been the problem this season our inconsistency.
"Tonight we tried to make something special happen and it almost did, but we just didn't get the breaks when we needed them.
Hamburg are a good side and we made them struggle tonight.
"On another night, we hit the post and bar, those chances fly in and we win the tie but it was a great effort from everybody.
"Nobody gave us a chance but we nearly got a result.
Martin Jol was a relieved Hamburg coach.
"It was the most beautiful defeat of my coaching career.
"To get to the semi-final's of the Uefa Cup is fantastic, and over the two legs I thought we deserved it.
"The crowd was fantastic and they have some good players so I was worried when they scored a second, but we have some experienced players who coped with the pressure."