Klopp questions decision to make Dortmund play so soon after attack
LONDON (Reuters) - Former Borussia Dortmund manager Juergen Klopp on Thursday questioned a decision by European soccer authority UEFA to reschedule the German team's Champions League quarter-final for just 24 hours after their bus was attacked.
Klopp argued that, while he understood the difficulties faced by the decision-makers, they probably would have reached a different conclusion had they been on the bus with the players en route to the Signal Iduna Park stadium on Tuesday.
The match in Dortmund against AS Monaco was postponed after three explosions near the vehicle that injured Spanish defender Marc Bartra.
"I'm pretty sure the people who make the decision afterwards, if they had been in the bus they would not have played the game," Klopp told a news conference in Liverpool.
"If you are not in the bus you cannot imagine how it is exactly," he said, adding that he understood the views of both sides and it had been difficult to find another date.
Dortmund's current coach, Thomas Tuchel, said late on Wednesday his team had felt ignored by UEFA over the decision to reschedule the match so quickly.
Liverpool manager Klopp, who was Dortmund boss from 2008-2015, said he was proud of his former team, who lost the match 3-2.
"I was really proud of Borussia Dortmund. When they played the game they tried to give the best," he said. "I saw the faces of my former players and I saw the shock in their eyes and that was really, really hard. It will take time to deal with it."
(Reporting by Neil Robinson; editing by John Stonestreet)