Borussia Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel has revealed that striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was substituted in Tuesday night's defeat at Benfica due to his "body language".
The Bundesliga club fell to a 1-0 defeat at the Estadio da Luz,Kostas Mitroglou second half strike the only goal of the game.
Aubameyang missed a penalty, as well as a number of other notable opportunities, before he was withdrawn with 62 minutes played, and Tuchel revealed his reasons for the decision following the defeat.
"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," he told Uefa - viathe Mirror.
"I don't think he had a problem with the substitution."
Tuchel was disappointed with the result in Portugal, but praised the performance of his players nonetheless.
"It is an extremely complicated result, but I am very proud of how we played," he added.
"Even though I am very disappointed, I am proud of how we presented ourselves. I don't think we played well, I think we played outstandingly. It's only possible in football to play this well and to still lose. Luckily, there's a return leg for such games."
Benfica bossRui Vitoria, meanwhile, admitted his side were second best, although in slightly less blunt terms.
"It was a tasty victory for sure, speaking of justice after a game like this is tricky," he said.
"I agree that Dortmund is a strong opponent and that they had the best of this game. We lacked something in the defensive process during the first half, but changed at half-time. Besides that, we analysed that set pieces could be a way of hurting Dortmund and it worked."