Big games, big victories, big defeats, big club

The first defeat in 2016, the first defeat this season that really, really hurt. The team will have to digest this. Thomas Tuchel said after the 3-4 at Anfield: "now we have to learn to cope with this. This will be a time for us all to get to know each other again. This was a milestone we did not achieve. It will be interesting to see how we will cope with this as a group. By the latest next Wednesday we will have to turn this disappointment into defiance and energy and then reach our next big goal." The DFB Cup final.

„An explanation to all this would lead to things having some sort of logic to them.“

His team were leading 2-0 and 3-1 at Liverpool FC through goals by Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Marco Reus, up to the 66.minute they didn't just look like the certain winners of the game, they even looked like they had definitely secured their place in the semi-finals. No one at this stage in the stadium would have thought a 4-3 for the 'Reds' would have been possible. But that is what this sport is like. Tuchel acknowledged after the game that people will still be speaking about decades from now: "we congratulate Liverpool, they deserved it." "We were lucky back in 2013 to beat FC Malaga in similar fashion, this time luck was not on our side", was the way Roman Weidenfeller saw it, who did not have any chance for any of the four goals BVB conceded.

Tuchel said: "we could not win it like Champions and we should behave like Champions. We have to get up again. The goal was to get through to the next round. We have to put that behind us now. It was in our hands for long stretches of the game."

How can a team still lose a match after leading 2-0 and 3-1? The last time this happened to BVB was over 20 years ago, on the 29.August 1995 (2-3 after leading 0-2) - and by the way this was with a very experienced team who were true Champions. Tuchel answered: "an explanation to all this would lead to things having some sort of logic to them." But in the final stage of this game virtually nothing proved to be logical. This wild style of play that Juergen Klopp ordered his team to perform opens up spaces at the back in nine out of ten cases. But we have already experienced this once before, 1966, when 'Fischken' Multhaup told his team: "nine out of ten times Liverpool will win, but today, gentlemen..."

Back then Dortmund won. This time Liverpool won.

Mats Hummels said after the game: „we should have just let the ball run and controlled the game. You have to want to win every ball and give everything to achieve that. But that wasn't the case for us anymore."

Tuchel explained: "everything felt perfect for a long time. I was proud of my team and of what I saw. This is what can happen in football, what can happen at the highest level in sport. The game was brilliant - with a very bitter end for us."

„The game was brilliant - with a very bitter end for us“

The unspoken question that preoccupied the team and the officials on the flight back to Dortmund was: „can we not win the big games anymore?" Tuchel added: "of course we are playing for the final result and it was our goal to reach the next round." After losing the finals in 2013, 2014 and 2015 Liverpool can join the victorious teams. And accordingly, the atmosphere was pretty low. But there were also great wins after 2012, winning the Double with a 5-2 victory in the final against Bayern Munich, for example: Malaga and Madrid on the way to the Champions League final, Munich in the Cup semi-final 2015.

There are still possibilities to get great wins in this - despite Liverpool - phenomenal season. Next Wednesday in Berlin. And maybe on the 21.May again in the Olympic Stadium.

Hold Your Heads Up High. And go and win the Cup!

Boris Rupert