Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels has admitted that his team got the "jitters" when they threw away a 3-1 lead to lose 4-3 to Liverpool in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final at Anfield.
The German outfit raced into a 2-0 lead within the first 10 minutes and after Divock Origi scored in the second half, Marco Reus attempted to quieten the Anfield crowd with a third Dortmund goal.
Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side needed to score three goals in just over half an hour to win, and they managed to do so as Dejan Lovren's 91st-minute header rounded off a dramatic night on Merseyside.
"When we scored to make it 3-1 we thought we were through," Hummels told Sky Germany. "We stopped defending aggressively and stopped playing football when we scored the 3-1. Then we suddenly got the jitters. We gave it away.
"Liverpool would never have come back if we would have continued to play our socks off after we scored the 3-1. We should have made the opponent chase the ball.
"Instead we just lost touch too often in defence. We just can't concede goals like that, that was too easy for them. This defeat is the one that hurts the most this season."
The aggregate result was 5-4 in Liverpool's favour.
Danielle Joynson
