DORTMUND — Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel slammed the decision to play the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal against Monaco just a day after a bomb attack on the German team’s bus.
Teenager Kylian Mbappe struck twice as Monaco claimed a thrilling 3-2 win at Signal Iduna Park Wednesday, but Tuchel was furious at the way the incident was handled by governing body UEFA.
The fixture was postponed 24 hours after three explosions rocked the Dortmund team coach and left Spain international Marc Bartra with a broken wrist as the Germans made their way to the ground ahead of Tuesday’s scheduled kick-off.
“We felt completely passed over, it came down to ‘tomorrow, you’re playing’,” said Tuchel.
“Ultimately, it was decided in Nyon in Switzerland whether or not to play the next day. It was a somewhat powerless feeling. Each player had the right to start with a somewhat queasy feeling.
“We would have liked to have had more time to work through it,” he added.
“There are players who easily brushed it off, but there are also players who really took it to heart. They are more thoughtful.”
Dortmund defiantly vowed not to “give in to terror” after Tuesday’s harrowing events, but the home side struggled early and fell behind on 19 minutes — although only after Fabinho missed a rare penalty.
Mbappe bundled in the opening goal before Sven Bender, filling in for Bartra in defense, headed into his own net to compound Dortmund’s problems.
Ousmane Dembele pulled one back for Dortmund on 57 minutes, but Mbappe fired in his second of the game to leave Monaco as favorite to reach the last four despite Shinji Kagawa’s late strike.
Dortmund players wore t-shirts bearing a message of support for Bartra prior to kickoff, while goalkeeper Roman Burki warmed up in the defender’s No. 5 jersey.
Klopp questions decision to make Dortmund play soon
Former Borussia Dortmund manager Juergen Klopp Thursday questioned a decision by European soccer authority UEFA to reschedule the German team’s Champions League quarterfinal for just 24 hours after their bus was attacked.
Klopp argued that, while he understood the difficulties faced by the decision-makers, they probably would have reached a different conclusion had they been on the bus with the players en route to the Signal Iduna Park stadium Tuesday. “I’m pretty sure the people who make the decision afterward, if they had been in the bus they would not have played the game,” Klopp told a news conference in Liverpool.
“If you are not in the bus you cannot imagine how it is exactly,” he said, adding that he understood the views of both sides and it had been difficult to find another date.
Liverpool manager Klopp, who was Dortmund boss from 2008-2015, said he was proud of his former team, who lost the match 3-2.
“I was really proud of Borussia Dortmund. I saw the faces of my former players and I saw the shock in their eyes and that was really, really hard. It will take time to deal with it.” — Agencies
