Cardiff Met bowed out of the Europa League on the away goals rule despite a preliminary round second leg win at home to Progres Niederkorn.
Jordan Lam gave Cardiff Met an early lead to level the tie and Dylan Rees’ second half penalty doubled their lead.
But the tie swung back in Progres’ favour when Mayron de Almeida’s crucial away goal levelled the aggregate score and put the visitors through.
Luxembourg side Progres will face Cork City in the next round.
Met had lost the first leg 1-0 in Luxembourg but manager Christian Edwards felt his side had “kept the tie alive”.
The students, in their first season in Europe, made the perfect start when they took the lead within the opening three minutes to level the tie 1-1 on aggregate.
Lam headed home after good work from Elliott Evans following Kyle McCarthy’s free-kick.
Christian Edwards’ side withstood Progres pressure at the end of a first half which threatened to boil over as the players left the Cardiff International Athletic Stadium pitch.
Progres looked dominant in the early stages of the second half but Met doubled their lead on 67 minutes through Rees’ penalty.
Rees converted from the spot after Mael Davies was brought down inside the area by Yann Marques
But Progres responded six minutes later with De Almeida scoring the crucial away goal which levelled the tie and booked their place in the next round.
Cardiff Met director of football Christian Edwards told BBC Sport Wales: “We’ve embraced the competition and the competition has embraced us. It’s been a fantastic experience.
“I’m not into celebrating losses because ultimately we’ve lost the tie on away goals but I’m very, very proud.
“We were brave tonight. We could have easily sat back and defended that lead but we were aggressive in everything that we had to do.
“We really got under the skin of the Progres players and you could see that throughout the game.”
