Tries for Mike Collins and Kieran Williams saw the Welsh side take a surprise 14-3 lead during the first half, but the three-time champions fought back with four tries of their own.

Booth, who guided Ospreys to three Pool B wins from four matches to reach the knockout stage, said of the campaign: “I think we’ve given a decent account of ourselves and earned some respect on this whole journey.

“When you play against Saracens, it has to be an 80-minute performance and there were elements where, in key moments in the second half, we relinquished pressure or didn’t exit well enough.

“Those are the little things that they pride themselves in. That’s how they apply pressure. If you’re not resilient to that, which we were for a considerable part of the game, they exploit those little cracks and those cracks get bigger."

Scrum-half Rhys Webb thought that individual errors and penalties gave Saracens a foothold in the match.

“Playing against a team like that, you need to be on the money for 80 minutes,” he said. “Individual errors, exits, discipline and just back-to-back penalties – you can’t let a team like Saracens into a game like that and they capitalised well.

“I think it would have been a different game if we didn’t concede that try just coming into half-time.”

Ospreys head coach Toby Booth feels his side have departed the Heineken Champions Cup with heads held high after bowing out via a 35-20 defeat at Saracens in the Round of 16.