Millwall's first venture into Europe in their 119-year history ended in a 1-1 draw with Hungarian Champions Ferencvaros at The Den.
Their inexperience showed, as they were the better team for huge periods of the game, but could not hold on to their lead and fell foul of the classic European sucker-punch goal late in the game.
The game started brightly for Millwall who took the game by the scruff of the neck. Ferencvaros kicked off, but that was all they saw of the ball for some time as the home side dominated the opening exchanges.
The tone for the game became apparent as early as the tenth minute. Millwall looked to move the ball through Dennis Wise in his defensive midfield position. When they lost possession the whole team harried and hustled the visitors in order to deny them time on the ball.
Ferencvaros, by contrast, looked controlled on the ball and favoured a methodical passing build up - although they rarely got the opportunity.
The first of three yellow cards in the first half was shown to Adem Kapic after just ten minutes for cutting short Josh Simpson's winding run through the midfield.
It was not the last or the worst as Sorin Botis was lucky to stay on the field after sliding through Kevin Muscat with his studs showing.
Marvin Elliott and Stefan Moore both squandered good opportunities to put the home side ahead in the first half, denied by a combination of good goalkeeping from Lajos Szucs and poor finishing respectively.
The Lions continued to dominate the first half and should have gone into the break with a goal to show for their domination of possession and pressure.
The game was played in a competitive manner and it threatened to spill over into violence during a number of flash points. The worst involved Robert Vagner and Kevin Muscat. As the pair went to collect the ball the Ferencvaros striker went to ground in agony, causing both sets of players to square up to each other.
The second half followed a similar pattern to first as the home side, urged on by their vociferous support, searched for a precious goal to take to the second leg in Budapest.
The players and the crowd thought that they scored on the hour, after the net bulged when Elliott fired in Wise's corner, only for the referee to rule the goal out for a foul on Szucs.
Only five minutes later the crowd celebrated for real as Wise curled in a spectacular free-kick from the edge of the box.
The Millwall player-manager had an outstanding game in midfield and lead from the front. His attacking corners, free-kicks and cross-field balls were a constant threat to the Hungarian side and quickly turned defence into attack.
The visitors got an unlikely equaliser just 12 minutes before the end after David Livermore fouled Alexsandar Bajevski on the edge of the box. Visiting captain Peter Lipcsei stepped up to fire the free-kick past the diving Graham Stack and into the bottom corner.
Lipcsei's equaliser may have been against the run of play, but it put the Hungarians firmly in the driving seat for the return leg.