AND then, humiliatingly, there were none. Nottingham, Forest, flying the last red white and blue flag for Britain in Europe, raised a final white flag of surrender when they were cruelly cut down and tossed out of the UEFA Cup by Bayern Munich.

Forest, who had fought their way through French fields, and a Swedish storm in Auxerre, Lyon and Malmo, went into this second leg of the quarter-final on a tide of optimism, swollen by Steve Chettle's apparently valuable away goal in Bavaria two weeks ago and tales of disharmony in the Munich ranks.

But after an opening 25 minutes in which Frank Clark's team produced their best attacking football of the entire European campaign without the breakthrough it needed and deserved, they were savaged by two set pieces which left goalkeeper Mark Crossley, the hero of previous rounds, in despair.

Those strikes by Christian Ziege and Thomas Strunz effectively ended Forest's ambitious dream of their first European trophy since Brian Clough's side twice lifted the Champions Cup in 1979 and 1980.

But Bayern's two former European Footballers of the Year, Juergen Klinsmann and Jean Pierre Papin, were not yet finished with the corpse of a belligerent English team, which they shook about like a terrier with a dead rabbit.

The damage had really been done, however, by Bayern's stern defensive taste in the first 25 minutes, when Strunz cleared off the line from a Stuart Pearce rocket and Ziege made a life-saving interception from a Kevin Campbell header. Both German defenders went on to score.

Ziege dug into a short free kick by stylish sweeper Lothar Matthaeus in the 29th minute after Colin Cooper was judged to have fouled Klinsmann 25 yards out.

It sped past Forest's defensive wall and Crossley, diving late behind it, could not prevent the ball sneaking in by his left-hand post.

Cooper and the energetic Bryan Roy had goals justifiably disallowed for offside as Forest infused to surrender to this severe setback.

Strunz's strike two minutes before the interval left Forest's wildest dreams in tatters. Pap in pulled the Forest defence out of balance with a cute corner.

Klinsmann collected his 13th goal in the UEFA Cup this season with a showman's somersault to hook the ball over his shoulder and into the net.

Papin powered an unstoppable header past Crossley six minutes later after Klinsmann's pass sent substitute Dieter Frey galloping into acres of space on the right to deliver the cross.

And 11 minutes from the end Ziege's pass, which broke up another bout of emotional Forest pressure, sent Klinsmann cruising through the centre to beat the helpless Crossley with emphatic ease.

Five minutes from the end Forest got a deserved consolation when substitute Jason Lee played a slick one-two with Steve Stone and the England winger drilled in a scoring shot.