Thursday 13 April 2017 16:19, UK
Borussia Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel admits his side felt "powerless" to stop the rescheduling of their clash with Monaco after their team bus was targeted in explosions on Tuesday.
The match was rearranged following explosions near Dortmund's team coach, which saw defender Marc Bartra receive surgery on his wrist, though Dortmund manager Tuchel admitted before the game his team needed more time to prepare.
Dortmund went down 3-2 to the French side in the first leg at Signal Iduna Park, and Tuchel was unhappy after the match at the lack of consultation over the rescheduling of the game, saying the decision was made in Switzerland, where UEFA are based.
"We were never asked, we were informed by a text message that the UEFA made a decision in Switzerland. It felt lousy. And that sticks with us," Tuchel said.
"It gave us a powerless feeling, like we had a job to do and nothing else mattered. It [the re-scheduling] didn't give us a good feeling.
"A few minutes after this attack, the only question that was asked was, 'Are you ready to play?'. As though a can of beer had been thrown at our window.
"At that time, we did not know the reasons for this attack. There is a feeling of helplessness. The date was imposed on us. What we think has not interested anyone. We weren't asked about playing the game.
"I encouraged all the players to take the game seriously. But football is not the most important thing in the world.
"We want to help all our players overcome their own internal conflicts from this. That was a bad experience.
"We wished for more time not only to process things but also to be able to play in our best form for our Champions League dream."
Defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos added: "They (UEFA) have to understand that we are not animals.
"We are people who have families, who have kids in the house. And we are not animals. I am happy that all the players are alive, and all the staff are alive."
UEFA issued a statement in the wake of Tuchel's comments denying that either side had been forced to play.
A UEFA spokesman said: "The decision to play the UEFA Champions League match between Borussia Dortmund and AS Monaco FC on Wednesday at 18.45CET was made on Tuesday night at the BvB Stadion Dortmund in cooperation and complete agreement with clubs and authorities.
"UEFA was in touch with all parties on Wednesday and never received any information which suggested that any of the teams did not want to play."
Before Tuchel made the comments, UEFA competitions director Giorgio Marchetti had told the BBC: "The schedule of these clubs is completely full and the next round of the Champions League will take place in early May.
"Now this doesn't mean that nothing can be done. All decisions were made in full agreement with the two clubs."
Dortmund were 2-0 down going into half time, but improved after the break to halve the deficit on two occasions to stay in the tie.
Tuchel said his side felt bitter about the events of the first half, which saw an own goal by Sven Bender and a Kylian Mbappe opener which looked offside.
"The second leg will be a hard test, but it is just half-time," he said. "The second half was very good. The first half was extremely bitter with the way things went down.
"You could say those were two own goals and an offside goal. We only talked football at half-time. We wanted to put a lot of pressure on their full-back.
"We were that little bit too imprecise to equalise and then conceded the third goal."
