Mixed Zone: AS Monaco – Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund could not overcome a 3-2 deficit from the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal in Monaco. Here are the mixed zone interviews.

Marco Reus: “In the first 20 minutes, when Monaco scored two goals, we were very unorganised. In the first half, we have to put the ball on target in the first two, three, four promising opportunities. With a bit more luck, we would have scored and the second half would have taken a different run of play. We didn’t play well in the second half.”

…asked if the line-up chosen by the coach was too defensive minded, Reus said: “If you had heard the tactical approach by the coach ahead of the match it was certainly attacking minded. We knew that we needed to a good cover against Monaco’s fast players and we knew that we had to score three goals. The match was put to bed after the 3-1.”

Roman Bürki: “Of course [Tuesday’s attack on our lives] made a difference. A big difference. However, I think we still could have made the semifinals today. We cannot be happy with today’s match and thus deservedly were eliminated [from the Champions League].”

…asked about why Dortmund started so poorly, Bürki said: “We had two individual mistakes for Monaco’s first tow goals. We weren’t ready at the start of the game. Maybe we were too focused on scoring goals and allowed too much at the back.

Monaco obviously gained confidence from going up early in the match. That we weren’t 100 percent ready from the first second was maybe the difference.”

…asked if the line-up chosen poorly, Bürki said: “t wasn’t the line-up. We had chances, like the freekick that hit the post. It was unlucky. We put in everything we had in the second half, as we knew that we had to score three goals, but it wasn’t enough in the end.

Thomas Tuchel: “There were a lot of errors in our game at the start – a lot of technical and positional lapses, which remained a theme over the course of the game. We committed a lot of unforced errors, so we had to run back and defend [Monaco’s] counter-attacks. This made it very hard for us to gain some confidence and security in the match. After the first goal, we found a lot of space to immediately equalise but played it too complicated.

We also lacked the courage to move the backline further up the field and narrow down the spaces and to create compactness. Taking everything into account, it wasn’t enough today.”

…asked if Dembele should have started, Tuchel said: “No, otherwise he would have started. The kid played a lot this season – probably too many matches already. You could see it in his game today as well. There were a lot of technical lapses und misplaced passes which are normally not part of his game in this frequency. Usually, he is very secure on the ball.”

…on Lukasz Piszczek committing an error leading to a goal in each game against Monaco, Tuchel said: “There are very few people who it would cause more pain to than Piszczu. Piszczu is always there, always with all his energy. He’s a role model professional. He is also a proud father of a family who suffered a lot in the last week and I believe that this costs him.”

Tuchel’s bottom line: “Everything that could go against us, went against us.”

(source: ZDF)