Mats Hummels: We made far too many individual mistakes against Rangers

Mats Hummels believes that individual mistakes cost Borussia Dortmund heavily over the two legs as they were knocked out of the UEFA Europa League by Rangers.

Borussia Dortmund’s dream of winning the UEFA Europa League came to an abrupt end on Thursday evening as they were knocked out by Rangers. Dubbed as one of the favourites to win the competition heading into the knockout stage, the Black and Yellows fell at their first hurdle and failed to even make it to the round of 16.

Mats Hummels believes that Borussia Dortmund lost the tie a week ago in the first leg at the Signal Iduna Park, and they simply made far too many individual mistakes over the course of the two legs.

"“In the end, we didn’t lose it here, we lost it last week in Dortmund. But we could have turned it around. It’s a huge disappointment. We have 100,000 players injured all the time, but still we made far too many individual mistakes – including myself at 2:2.”"

Hummels also recognises that it was his mistake that allowed Rangers to wrestle back control of the tie after Borussia Dortmund had taken the lead on the night thanks to goals from Jude Bellingham and Donyell Malen.

"“We started poorly after the break and brought them back into the game. Then I missed the ball and made the mistake before the 2-2. That got the stadium going again and allowed Rangers to come back. They were incredibly nervous before.”"

James Tavernier’s second half strike restored Rangers’ two goal lead on aggregate and took the sting out of the Borussia Dortmund attack. The home side managed to see out the win quite comfortably, ending Dortmund’s Europa League journey in the process.

A memorable comeback wasn’t to be in the end, and Borussia Dortmund only have the Bundesliga left to focus on from now until the end of the season. Marco Rose’s side will have to pick themselves back up quickly as they face a tricky away game against FC Augsburg this weekend.