Borussia Dortmund were everything beautiful, valiant and ultimately flawed about football during their Champions League final defeat - the better team lost because they erred in areas that mattered most, writes IAN LADYMAN

When the hearts finally broke open here at Wembley, they bled yellow. Borussia Dortmund were marvellous to watch. Brave, dashing, committed and unified. They were everything beautiful and valiant and ultimately flawed about football. And then they lost. When Real Madrid are involved, it's the way it tends to happen.

We will not forget the German team, though. Beforehand, they felt a little like interlopers. The fifth best team in the Bundesliga taking on European royalty, a cornerstone of the old guard.

But that feeling - that rather patronising and condescending view of things - had gone almost by the time three pitch invaders had left their sorry footprints on the turf within the opening minutes. Dortmund - as their engaging coach Edin Terzic had said beforehand - had come here not to play but to win. 

Had they been sharper in front of goal and had their legs not buckled on them in the last 15 minutes, they may well have pulled this off and the neutrals - those of us who instinctively baulk at any kind of sporting domination - would have felt European football all the better for it.

Still, we will not forget what they gave us. The vibrancy and noise of their supporters, the spirit and sheer guts of their football. Their determination to ensure that Real's assault on European Cup No 15 did not become a procession as had been predicted.

Bundesliga also-rans - this season at least - versus the Spanish champions and serial winners should not have been like this. It should not have been a contest won against the head by Carlo Ancelotti's team. But that's exactly what it was and it was all the more beguiling to watch because of it.

That Dortmund didn't win - or even get this to extra time - was not because of bad luck. It would be wrong to say that. It was because they erred in the areas that mattered most. 

They missed three first-half chances that should have been taken at this level. Then they conceded a goal with 15 minutes left to a small Spanish full-back who outjumped a taller man at a corner and headed the ball in to the net. They are huge moments of regret and when the sense of pride and perhaps injustice settles down over the coming days, Terzic and his players will always know that a little part of them flunked the really critical parts of this test.

But none of this is what we will remember about Dortmund. No, we will remember all the terrific things that came before.

We will, for example, recall the moment a minute or so before the end of a first half that had belonged to the team in yellow as their 35-year-old defender Mats Hummels brought Real's flying forward Vinicius Jnr to the floor with the kind of tackle centre halves go to bed dreaming about.

Some say Vinicius Jnr is the best player in the world but it's hard to look flash while you are sitting on the seat of your pants and by the time he got up to complain to the referee his opponent was standing above him, fists clenched, roaring with self-approval.

As a metaphor for the first 45 minutes and indeed the first hour of this game, it wasn't bad. If those irritant pitch invaders had proved too hot for the Wembley security staff - where there any? - then Dortmund's yellow and black runners subsequently showed themselves to be all that was watchable about the game for long periods.

Dortmund's supporters had taken over London during the hours running up to the game. Regent Street in the capital at about 2pm was something to behold. Here inside England's national stadium, they brought all the noise - as their old coach Jurgen Klopp used to say - to the east end of Wembley, providing a hypnotic backdrop to their team's attempts to shock Real with a goal. Much had been said and written about the sheer humbleness and realness of Dortmund and their fans in the build up to this game and here it was in all its vivid beauty.

The Dortmund that presented itself here was very much the Dortmund we know about. The club that keeps a tight rein on its ticket prices and refuses to replace regular seating with corporate boxes. The club that refused to entertain any notion of joining the European Super League back in 2021. The club that stands together.

In terms of the football, Dortmund were just undeniably watchable. When they attacked they did so with speed and in number. Had Karim Adeyemi applied better first touches to two first half chances or had Niclas Fullkrug not struck a post around about the same time, who knows what would happened?

This is what this Real team do, though. They leave teams wondering. It must have been sapping for Real at times to face this Dortmund team. Equally it must have been all the more rewarding to come through this with yet another European Cup secured.

The better team lost here at Wembley and maybe that was why Terzic was in tears at the end. It was at times quite something watching them fail.