Jude Bellingham: Europa League exit a massive disappointment for Borussia Dortmund

Jude Bellingham feels that the Borussia Dortmund players let the fans, coaching staff and even themselves down with their performances over the two legs of the Rangers tie.

Borussia Dortmund were eliminated from the UEFA Europa League on Thursday evening as they could only manage a 2-2 draw in the second leg of their knockout round playoffs tie against Rangers. It was a bitter blow for the Black and Yellows, who were among the favourites to win the competition going into the knockout rounds.

And Jude Bellingham feels that bowing out of the Europa League, especially at such an early stage, is a massive disappointment for Borussia Dortmund.

"“It’s a massive disappointment,” Bellingham told BT Sport. “I feel like we’ve let the fans down, we’ve let the staff down. They put a lot in to try and help us win the tie. We’ve let ourselves down as well. If we look at ourselves in the mirror, we’ll realise we could’ve done more over the two legs.”"

Bellingham was one of Borussia Dortmund’s top performers over the two legs and caused Rangers a lot of problems with his quality in midfield.

The England international scored Dortmund’s equaliser on Thursday, before setting up Donyell Malen’s goal soon after. He also hit the post in the first half, giving Marco Rose’s side hope of a stunning comeback going into the break.

But the half time break brought Borussia Dortmund’s momentum to a halt, and Rangers scored in the second half to restore their two goal lead on aggregate. And Bellingham feels that the half time break came at the worst possible time for Dortmund, as they lost their bite in the second half.

"“I think it was the worst time for half time to come. Our momentum was gone. We came out and we didn’t have that bite that we had in the first half when we were going forward… We were causing them problems before that… We didn’t take all our chances and they took theirs.”"

Borussia Dortmund’s exit from the UEFA Europa League means that it will probably be a season without any silverware for them. Their main aim now will be to finish the season strongly in the Bundesliga.