Mats Hummels shared his thoughts on the 3-2 win over VfB Stuttgart in a post-game interview. “We came here with a completely different game plan,” said the Dortmund centre-back on the opening stages of play that saw the Black n Yellows trailing 2-0, adding: “But we showed spirit.”

You really had to fight yourselves into the game today, didn’t you?

We were not much worse than Stuttgart in the opening 20 minutes, but unfortunately we gave them three chances and two of them went in. It was much too easy for Stuttgart and we basically invited them to score their goals. We had the game completely under control after it and restricted Stuttgart to few opportunities. We could have scored the equaliser much sooner, and that’s why I think we picked up a deserved win.

What’s going through your mind when you are 2-0 down after only 20 minutes of play?

You don’t feel great. We came here with a completely different game plan. We knew we would face a side that probably lacks confidence and we didn’t want to give a chance to regain it, which didn’t really work out. We started the game on the wrong foot, but we showed spirit. We showed that we always have the right attitude.

How important was it to win for a change ahead of a Champions League match?

It would have been nice had we only lost the games ahead of a Champions League game. This topic has been mentioned a few times in the last couple of weeks, but it has to be said that we also lost a couple of times when we didn’t have a Champions League match on the horizon. It didn’t matter to us whether we play Real Madrid on Wednesday or not, we really wanted to pick up three points here. And we managed to do that.

Have you ever played in a match where the referee had to be substituted?

No, actually I haven’t, not even in my youth. I wish Herr Weiner a speedy recovery.

How difficult is it to prepare for a game that is sandwiched between a Revierderby and a match against Real Madrid?

It’s no problem at all for us as we are not thinking this way. We play in Stuttgart in front of a 60,000 crowd, a great setting with a great atmosphere and against a good team. I don’t see how people could think that we would take a game like this lightly.

What’s your game plan against Real?

We want to play like we did today after the 25th minute. Our game plan is quite clear: we want to be compact and try to hit on the break. And we want to get a good result there. If you know their weaknesses, any team can be beaten.