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Tiny Swiss club Thun were relishing potential trips to the Bernabeu stadium, San Siro or Old Trafford after clinching an unexpected place in the Champions League on Tuesday.
"I would love to take this team to England or Italy," Thun coach Urs Schoenenberger said with a grin.
"Playing teams like Barcelona or Real Madrid will be a dream for us. It's something I can hardly contemplate right now."
Schoenenberger's unfancied side overcame Swedish champions Malmo in the third and final qualifying round, beating them 3-0 in the second leg at Bern's Wankdorf stadium on Tuesday for a remarkable 4-0 aggregate victory.
Cobbled together on an annual budget of just 5.5 million Swiss Francs ($4.3 million), Thun looked anything but underdogs, overwhelming the 1979 European Cup finalists with an impressively assured performance.
"It was fantastic," Swiss President Samuel Schmid said as he prepared to congratulate the team. "It's an extraordinary achievement for a town of Thun's size and a great boost for the country as a whole."
New Brazilian signing Bernardi fired the Swiss team in front after 26 minutes, heading home a well-weighted cross from Portuguese defender Jose Goncalves after a quick-flowing build-up involving half the team.
LUSTRINELLI DOUBLE
Five minutes before the break, newly-capped Swiss international Mauro Lustrinelli doubled the lead after profiting from a terribly mis-struck back pass by Malmo defender Joseph Elanga.
Lustrinelli, whose 20 goals in the Swiss league last season helped lift Thun to an unprecedented second place finish, compounded Malmo's misery in the 66th minute when he curled a speculative lob from 30 metres into the top right corner of Mattias Asper's goal.
The introduction of Malmo's Finnish striker Jari Litmanen brought about an improvement in the visitors' play, but a string of fine saves from Thun keeper Eldin Jakupovic prevented the Swedes from grabbing even a consolation goal.
"Now it's over I think we can say that was a perfect match from start to finish," a beaming Thun captain Andres Gerber said. "Right now I don't care who we get to play in the group stage -- I just want to enjoy this moment."
With their own dilapidated Lachen stadium failing to meet UEFA standards, and also currently under water following a weekend of heavy flooding in Switzerland, Thun set a new benchmark even before the game had begun.
RECORD CROWD
The small club, who only returned to the Swiss top flight in 2002 and disposed of Champions League regulars Dynamo Kiev in the second qualifying round, attracted a club record 31,243 spectators to the Swiss capital.
It was a particularly impressive turnout given that the town of Thun boasts just 41,000 inhabitants.
While nobody from Thun was yet talking about specific aims for the group stage, a warning was sent out to their future opponents from one of the few people not celebrating in Bern on Tuesday.
"They're a very compact side and probably possess a few qualities that some bigger sides might not," reckoned Malmo coach Tom Prahl.
"They have great solidarity on and off the pitch, great home support and right now they're riding on a wave of success -- so, no, I don't think it's impossible that Thun could now go on and beat a top club."
