MADRID: Borussia Dortmund manager Nuri Sahin took the blame for their 5-2 Champions League loss at Real Madrid on Tuesday, saying that his decision to reinforce his defence while leading 2-0 had an impact in their first loss in the competition.
Dortmund went into Tuesday's game on the back of two consecutive wins to start the Champions League season but were thrashed by Real Madrid in a rematch of last season's final.
The home side scored five goals following Sahin's decision to replace scorers Donyell Malen and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens with defender Waldemar Anton and holding midfielder Pascal Gross early in the second half.
"It's not easy to explain, of course. We, who I thought played well with the ball, really had a lot of solutions. The boys did well, scored two goals and then went into halftime and we knew it would be very long. The second half very, very long," Sahin told reporters.
"We noticed in the second half that we were being pushed back, we had defensive problems and I thought we should go to the three-man defence, and that didn't work out for us.
"It's my mistake and I have to live with it. There will be criticism, but that's something I have to face... We defended very, very badly. But also we have to factor the individual class of Real, a complete team."
However, Sahin said his side can take positives from how they played mainly in the first half and correct the mistakes going forward in the season.
"It's an extremely bitter loss today, it hurts because we go out with the feeling that it was possible to go out with a better result," Sahin said.
"But tomorrow we also have to take the positives from this game with us. If we can play football like this against Real Madrid, then we have to do it against everyone and that has to be our benchmark. We're doing well up front." (Reporting by Fernando Kallas Editing by Toby Davis)