Sven Bender: "We need to produce a great one in the second match!"

Boris Rupert reporting
"This game had everything we could have done without. I have played in some strange games, but this one tops it all," said Sven Bender, summing up the game that had two key moments.

After some 20 minutes, following a spell where Borussia Dortmund finally looked a bit more focused in their attacking efforts, showed urgency and purpose in their passing and began to find a foot in the game, Neven Subotic received treatment on the sidelines after taking a hit to the face. After team doctor Markus Braun and the BVB physios took care on a cut above the eye, the fourth official, Venâncio Tomé, refused to allow the defender to return to the pitch as, according to Jürgen Klopp, there was still some blood on his plaster.

Dr Braun and his colleagues had to provide a new plaster before Subotic was given the permission to return by the fourth official and the referee who simultaneously allowed Napoli to take a corner kick. While Subotic ran back onto the pitch and into the area, a cross flew in over his head finding Higuain who, beating Schmelzer to a header, put Napoli 1-0 in front.

It was, undoubtedly, an unfortunate situation, but it was not a crucial one as both the corner as well as the cross could have been avoided in the first place. Then again, the presence of all defenders would have given BVB a better chance to prevent the header.

Klopp was furious, and complained to the referee. "I´m embarrassed about the look on my face," the Dortmund coach admitted self-critically after the game. However, his outburst could not have been as serious as it looked like as the fourth official wanted to let the matter rest. It was the linesman who informed his boss, and referee Proenca sent off Klopp. "In that moment I perceived the 

the situation with Neven Subotic differently as it was.I thought the referee should have waited for Neven to come back on. But he didn´t have to do that." Klopp apologised straight after the game to the referee and his assistants Das muss er aber nicht."And he accepted the blame for the defeat. "My emotions turned a game we didn´t play well in into a hectic one," said Klopp afterwards.

Meaning, he also felt responsible for Roman Weidenfeller´s sending off, the game´s second crucial moment. Seconds before the red card incident, BVB had suffered another setback when a sciatic nerve forced Mats Hummels to limp off the pitch. At that point, the game was already into first-half stoppage time. Sven Bender was moved into a central defensive position, while Jakub Blaszczykowski switched into a holding midfield role. With seconds to play in the first half, and a chance to regroup at halftime, a misplaced pass and a woeful attempt to play for offside forced RomanWeidenfeller to make a last-ditch save outside the area. Coming out of his goal, the Dortmund goalkeeper reached the ball just before the onrushing Higuain, reflexively using a hand to clear it. His illegal use of the hand denied a scoring opportunity, and was rightly punished with a red card. "The devil takes the hindmost," said an understandably frustrated Weidenfeller.

"The devil takes the hindmost"
"With a man down, we played quite well after the interval and gave a good account of ourselves," said Bender about the second half in which Borussia succumbed to a second goal, in which Mitch Langerak, Weidenfeller´s replacement, crashed into the post to damage both of his incisors. "The defeat hurts more than the teeth," said Langerak who saw his (11-game winning) "streak" come to an end on Wednesday night. The Australian keeper said: "We lost our coach, and we lost Roman. Those were the crucial moments of the game." A game that Langerak kept open with some great goalkeeping, as much as even a "Malaga reloaded" seemed possible when Reus and (the very good) Aubameyang forced Zuniga into an own goal, and Napoli into, according to their coach Benitez, some nail-biting final minutes. With a man down, Dortmund fought and played with passion, pushed for an equaliser, but it was not meant to be.

So, despite battling hard, last year´s finalists went home with no points. In two weeks´ time, Borussia Dortmund meet Olympique Marseille in the Champions League in what could become a back-to-the-wall game. Before the match in Napoli, BVB chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke had said, "Champions League is not a normal season. It´s more like a cup competition. You must be at it from the start."

Borussia were not "at it" in Italy. "In the first half we didn´t play the way we wanted to play," admitted Sven Bender, before adding: "We need to produce a great one in the second match because we know from last year what a great competition the Champions League is." Nothing has been lost, and Jürgen Klopp knows this as well. "We need to present ourselves better, and we need to play better. Then we have a good chance to advance out of this group."