Thomas Frank hailed a “perfect” performance from his Tottenham side over 80 minutes but was left to rue a dramatic finale to the UEFA Super Cup.
Spurs had been the better side against Paris Saint-Germain and with 85 minutes on the clock held a 2-0 lead in Udine.
However, Lee Kang-In pulled one back and Goncalo Ramos then snatched an equaliser in stoppage-time, before PSG won the penalty shootout 4-3 to lift another European trophy.
Several Spurs players stood motionless in front of the fans after the match and they now have not even 72 hours to pick themselves up before the start of the Premier League season.
However, Frank insisted there was positives to take from the display before PSG’s late burst proved decisive.
“Very, very proud of the players, the team, the club, the fans,” Frank said.
“I think the players gave everything. Playing against one of the best teams in the world, maybe the best at the moment. I think 75, 80 minutes it was perfect, almost giving nothing away against the four players with unbelievable individual quality on the pitch.
“So very, very proud of them.”
The Spurs boss added: “I think if you play 2-2 against PSG you take that. I think that single result is good. Then you have a penalty shootout that we lost - maybe we need to work on penalties. Maybe that’s the thing to win a final.
“I think if everyone said this would be a draw and we’d do some penalties, everyone would think ‘Oh, that’s quite impressive’. Then if you look into the performance we actually put in and the shift we put in - wow, what a mentality throughout the game. A lot of things to be happy with.”
Frank switched to a back-three system for the first time since taking charging at Spurs. Kevin Danso came into the side and Mohammed Kudus partnered Richarlison up front.
It brought about a performance that was a world away from the 4-0 defeat to Bayern Munich last week and Frank declared the switch a success, even if he joked the “patient died”.
“Probably decided that on the day after the Bayern game,” Frank said of his formation change.
“Already I knew that we had to do something a little bit different against PSG. So it was a special operation. It was in medical terms operation succeeded but the patient died. So not that good in the end.
“We worked on a gameplan that was a little bit different and very, very close to succeeding.”
