Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels insists his side would soon return to the Champions League after exiting Europe with an emphatic 3-0 defeat at home to Juventus.
A double from Carlos Tevez and an Alvaro Morata tap-in at Dortmund on Wednesday put Juve into the quarter-finals and sealed a 5-1 win on aggregate in the last 16 tie.
Tevez blasted home a third-minute thunderbolt when he was left unmarked on the edge of the area which gave Dortmund a mountain to climb virtually from the kick-off.
With Dortmund currently 10th in the Bundesliga, they also face an uphill battle to finish in the top four and qualify for next season’s Champions League, but Hummels says Borussia will be back.
“It would be a shame if this is our last Champions League for a while, but we have shown in the past that Borussia Dortmund always comes back and hopefully that will apply to the Champions League too,” said the 26-year-old.
“We were okay in the first half, but we gave away too many balls and we gave away the result, as much as it hurts, it has to be accepted.
“The early goal we conceded was a shock. You can’t deny that. For almost the entire match we failed to create any noteworthy chances.”
Hummels gestured to home fans to stop booing and jeering after the final whistle which the Germany defender said his side did not deserve having won their group ahead of Arsenal.
A dire set of results saw Dortmund go bottom of the Bundesliga at the start of February, but Hummels defended their European record after reaching the knock-out stages for the last three seasons.
“I can understand the fans whistling when we have played so badly in the Bundesliga, but we have always done well in the Champions League and I felt that was uncalled for,” he said.
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