Robbie Keane's debut at the San Siro last night proved bittersweet for the young Irishman as Inter became the first big-name casualty of this season's competition, held to a 0-0 draw and eliminated from the tournament on a 1-0 aggregate losing scoreline.

On a night when Inter not only hit the woodwork twice but also missed a 90th-minute penalty, the Milan club may well feel that the sporting gods were not on their side.

While Inter will inevitably be bitterly disappointed with this false start to the season, Keane has little to reproach himself for. Having surprisingly been omitted by coach Marcello Lippi from the starting lineup, Keane was brought on as a substitute for Ivan Zamorano for the second half. Within 50 seconds, he had made good ground down the right to create a chance, while in the 51st minute he was desperately unlucky when he back-heeled the ball against the post.

Throughout the build-up to this return leg tie, coach Lippi kept telling us that he was confident about Inter's prospects of qualification. Perhaps he was trying to convince himself just as much as his players.

Whatever Lippi's intentions, Helsingborg refused to play out their seemingly predestined lamb-to-the-slaughter role. Right from the kick-off, the Swedes were clearly determined to make the most of their superior fitness, taking full advantage of an Inter side that seemed to be weighed down both by the 29C heat and by the estimated $10 million riding on a qualification for the first phase of the Champions League proper.

For all that, however, Inter might have had the proceedings wrapped up at halftime after Clarence Seedorf crashed a powerful shot against the bar after an impressive 40-yard run from the half-way line. Three minutes later, Seedorf again shot narrowly over the bar.

While the traffic was predominantly in the direction of the Helsingborg goalmouth, Inter were served a timely reminder of their problems just before half-time when Helsingborg's Brazilian striker Santos created a chance for Norwegian Stig Johansen, whose shot was just touched past the post by Sebastian Frey.

If the traffic had been predominantly one-way in the first half, it became totally one-way in the second. However, for all their increasingly more frenzied efforts, Inter's best chance in the second half was that Keane back-heel. At the very last moment, however, Inter appeared to have been given a reprieve when awarded a penalty for handball by defender Ola Nilsson. Uruguayan substitute Alvaro Recoba compounded Inter's night of misery by having his well-placed, but weakly struck, shot brilliantly saved. With that, Helsingborg were through and Inter were out.

Speaking to The Irish Times Keane made no attempt to hide his disappointment at the result, notwithstanding his own generally good performance.

"We're just gutted by this result and I feel really sorry for Recoba, because he's very disappointed at that missed penalty. As for myelf, when I hit that back-heel I thought it was in, to be honest with you. It took about half an hour to go but, as I said, I was just gutted that we lost."

He had no complaints about sitting out the first half on the substitutes' bench.

"You don't expect anything in football, and I was happy to go on when I went on. But it would have been a lot nicer if we'd won."

Inter Milan (4-4-2): Frey; Simic, Blanc, Cordoba, Macellari; Cauet, Di Biagio, Jugovic, Pirlo; Zamorano, Sukur. Subs: Keane (for Zamorano).

Helsingborgs (4-5-1): S Andersson; R Nilsson, O Nilsson, Matovak, Persson; C Andersson, Bakkerud, Jansson, Wahlstedt, Hansson; Santos.