Thomas Tuchel was quick to jump to the defence of his deflated Dortmund side as they slumped to an undeserved loss at the hands of Benfica. He did, however, admit that his team didn't adapt quickly enough to the change in their opposition's tactics after the break.
"I don't think we played well, I think we played outstandingly," claimed the Dortmund manager viaUEFA.com.
"We failed to notice that they played some sort of forechecking right after the interval, where we've lost the ball twice.
"They attacked us differently after the break, we were not prepared for how they attacked our back three. Had we played two long balls in those situations, nothing would have happened.That's only possible in football, to play this well and to still lose. Luckily, there's a return leg for such games."
Tuchel will be banking on a strong response from his side in the reverse fixture; in front of their faithful home crowd, the squad will be keen to avenge what happened on Tuesday nightin Lisbon, particularly Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The Gabon international squandered a handful of very goodchances, including a penalty.
When questioned on his decision to bring Aubameyang off after 61 minutes, Tuchel responded as follows: "Aubameyang is not fully fit after the African Nations Cup and his body language did not suggest that he would do better after giving away the penalty."
Tuchel was able to draw the positives from such a bitterly disappointing game, stating:"It is an extremely complicated result, but I am very proud of how we played tonight. Even though I am very disappointed, I am proud of how we presented ourselves."
The German outfit will feel a great injustice was dealt on Tuesday evening; now,they head back to Germany trailing behind Benfica without an away goal to their name and could tonight's inability to find the back of the net come back to haunt them?