The former Sydney FC leftback revealed his team’s pain after the Norwegian champions let go of their lead in the second leg of their Champions League play-off.

After the first leg in Trondheim, Rosenberg took a 2-1 lead to Cyprus. With the score 0-0 after 90mins, Gersbach’s side were set for the next round – but a dramatic end to the game saw the home side strike three times before the final whistle.

Giannis Gianniotas levelled the game in the 91st minute for the Cypriots then Vander scored a second and Tomas De Vincenti added a third in the ninth minute of stoppage time which also featured three yellow cards.

“It was pretty devastating,” said Gersbach. “I wasn’t even involved and it was devastating. I can’t imagine what it was like for the boys who did all that tough work all for it to be undone in the last few minutes.”

Gersbach said the Cypriot players, coaches and fans all pushed the boundaries with their gamesmanship antics to get a result.

“The fans were pretty full on, it was pretty crazy,” he said. “It was pretty intimidating to be honest - it was like a final. They did a pretty good job for their home team.

“Towards the end of the game, sportsmanship went out of the window. They’ll do anything to win and we’ll learn from that and we’ll take it with us into the Europa League.

“They are very passionate over there and maybe they don’t always play by the rules. We were so close to being in the play-offs for the Champions League and we had a good chance to qualify for the group stage.

"It was pretty tough but we can’t think about it too much – everyone is over it now and we have to focus on the Europa League.”

Despite not being involved against Apoel, Gersbach has featured in four of Rosenborg’s previous five league games.

The Aussie teenager will be in action when his Norwegian league leaders face Austria Vienna tomorrow morning, Australia time, in a Europa League play off.

“I’m looking forward to that,” he said. “It’s my first time starting in a European match and it’s a good chance for me. Hopefully we can get the job done and get a good lead going into the home leg.

“We’ve got a good chance to go in the Europa group stage and if we get there, we want to make sure we give it our all and do our best and try and get out of the group as well.