Dortmund ⋅ Jude Bellingham’s posture, words and gestures are adapted from games by Borussia Dortmund usually quite good to get an impression of how this team is doing. The young midfielder is a man who gives free rein to his emotions. On Thursday night, when the club were knocked out of the Europa League by a 2-2 loss at Glasgow Rangers, Bellingham was almost unstoppable. “It’s a huge disappointment. I feel like we let the fans down. We let ourselves down too,” scolded the Englishman and reproached his team-mates: “If we look in the mirror, we’ll realize that we could have done a bit more over the two games. I think that’s the thing that kills you in football.”
What is clear is that once again determinedly fighting Bellingham spoke less about himself than about his colleagues after Dortmund’s well-known weaknesses helped Glasgow to this overall success. Above all, individual mistakes and this fatal tendency to believe after good phases that a few percent less energy will be enough. “We had them completely in the sack in the first half,” said Mats Hummels after the final whistle, but instead of sealing that sack scrupulously, they once again started the second half without the required resilience. BVB can play football at a good level, but only in phases and without the necessary consistency.
