Borussia Dortmund coach Marco Rose bemoans his team's defending as he admits Rangers were worthy winners of Europa League tie

Borussia Dortmund manager Marco Rose admitted his team struggled to cope with the tactical switch which helped Rangers complete a 6-4 aggregate win over the Bundesliga giants in their Europa League knockout round play-off tie.

Donyell Malen scores to put Borussia Dortmund 2-1 ahead at Ibrox during the Europa League knockout round play-off tie against Rangers. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Dortmund seemed to be on course to wipe out their 4-2 deficit from the first leg when, after conceding a penalty scored by James Tavernier, goals from Jude Bellingham and Donyell Malan earned them a 2-1 half-time lead at Ibrox.

Rose’s team were in the ascendancy at that stage but his opposite number Giovanni van Bronckhorst regained control for Rangers with his change to a back three at the start of the second half.

“We started well in the first-half and caused Rangers problems,” said Rose. “After conceding a penalty we continued to play well.

“As we expected, Rangers changed to a 3-5-2 in the second-half and that made it quite difficult for us.

“Our team tried everything but over the course of two legs if you concede six goals you don’t deserve to go through. Rangers deserved to win the tie.”

Dortmund’s England international midfielder Bellingham savoured his first experience of Ibrox and had no complaints at the outcome.

“It was a brilliant game to play in,” he said. “We didn't have the bite we had in the first half. It's just one of those nights. We didn't take our chances, they took theirs and fair play to them. We have let the fans, the staff and ourselves down. If we look at ourselves in the mirror we'll realise we could have done more over both legs."

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.