Is Nuri Şahin to blame for Dortmund's 5-2 defeat against Real Madrid in UCL?

The Dortmund manager made two poor substitutions which led to Madrid’s comeback.

Borussia Dortmund manager Nuri Sahin acknowledged the blame for their 5-2 Champions League loss against Real Madrid on Tuesday, claiming that his choice to reinforce his defence while ahead 2-0 had consequences in their first loss in the competition.

Defeat pic.twitter.com/m5HKDDQvSy

— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) October 22, 2024

Dortmund headed into the match on Tuesday on the back of two wins in a row as they began the Champions League season but were humiliated by Real Madrid in a rerun of last season’s final.

“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.

Midway into the second half, Sahin substituted defender Waldemar Anton and holding midfielder Pascal Gross for goal scorers Donyell Malen and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, which allowed the home team to put up five goals.

☄️ @ViniJr 🟰 IMPARABLE ☄️#UCL pic.twitter.com/kzndco3F9S

— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid) October 23, 2024

“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.”

“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.

Sahin, though, stated that his team can learn from their performance, particularly in the first half, and improve on their errors moving ahead in the season.

“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.”

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