Raisuqe received a yellow card in either half and was promptly sent off, but it failed to stop the Parisian giants from scoring three tries on their way to victory.

Prop Zurabi Zhvania crossed for their first, and despite being a man light for most of the second half, replacement Raphael Lakafia and wing Julien Arias added further tries in the second half.

Josh Matavesi and Tyler Ardron scored the Ospreys’ tries in front of a crowd of 12,127, but Jules Plisson’s two conversions and two penalties ensured the majority of them went home disappointed.

At Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, the Ospreys, who had qualified for the quarter-finals with a perfect pool stage record of 30 points, started with a bang.

Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb and Justin Tipuric were all lively early on, the former’s penalty in the 13^th minute putting the Welsh region into a 3-0 lead. The fly-half then cantered over to score a try, but it was ruled out by the TMO after Keelan Giles’ pass in the build-up was rightly adjudged forward.

It looked like it would be just a matter of time before Steve Tandy’s men stamped their mark and they were given another boost when Stade wing Raisuqe was yellow carded for foul play.

Strangely, though, their one-man deficit spurred the French raiders into life.

First, Plisson’s penalty levelled the scores and then prop Zhvania showed an impressive turn of foot to make his way to the line and dot down in the left corner.

Plisson pushed the conversion wide, before he and Biggar then exchanged further misses at goal to leave Stade ahead by just two points at the interval.

A second penalty from Plisson extended Stade’s advantage at the start of the second period.

But the Ospreys then got the try which had been coming, a lovely floated pass from Webb finding Matavesi who finished expertly in the corner. Biggar missed the conversion, but a strange game soon got even stranger as Stade went down to 14 permanently.

Biggar put the Ospreys on the front foot with another sharp break, Raisuqe receiving a second yellow card and then a red after cynically entering a ruck from the side and taking out Webb.

Biggar’s resulting penalty made it 14-11, but Stade refused to go away and two more quick tries won them the game.

Lakafia collected Plisson’s cross kick to score in the corner, then Hugh Pyle intercepted Sam Davies’ horror pass to feed Arias to dive over. Plisson converted both efforts.

Pyle looked like he was offside when intercepting, but the score was given and it left the Ospreys to chase the game.

They dominated possession late on and although replacement Ardron crossed late on for a try which Biggar converted, it was too little, too late.