Borussia Dortmund are SAVAGED in the German press over shock 4-2 loss to Rangers

Borussia Dortmund have been slammed by the press in Germany in the wake of their surprise home defeat by Rangers in the Europa League, with newspaper BILD casting a damning verdict over many players’ performances.

The Scottish underdogs travelled to the Westfalenstadion for the first leg of their play-off clash, but pulled off a stunning upset after racing into a two-goal lead at half-time and then adding two more after the break.

Reeling from the setback, Dortmund now have it all to do to secure a spot in the last-16 of the competition, having dropped out of the Champions League.

Alfredo Morelos scored in the first-half with the Scottish side pulling off a stunning upset

And BILD did not hold back when savaging the home side in their post-match analysis, with all-but two stars slapped with the lowest rating possible. 

That meant that defenders Manuel Akanji, Mats Hummels, Dan-Axel Zagadou and Raphael Guerreiro all bore the brunt of conceding four goals, a tally which has handed their team a mountain to climb for next week’s return tie.

Mahmoud Dahoud, Julian Brandt, Marco Reus and Donyell Malen were also sixes, with just goalkeeper Gregor Kobel a four and Jude Bellingham handed a five.

Manager Marco Rose and the majority of his players were given BILD’s lowest possible rating

Witheringly, even red-faced manager Marco Rose picked up the worst number. 

James Tavernier and Alfredo Morelos netted in the first half for Rangers to send their travelling supporters into delirium, before John Lundstram crashed home a third.

Bellingham, whose performance proved to be one of the very few reasons to be positive for Dortmund, pulled one back, but Zagadou then scored an own goal.

Guerreiro may have restored some hope for the Bundesliga giants with a thunderbolt strike late on, but it is Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men who are in pole position. 

Jude Bellingham delivered a good performance, and was rated at a 5 by the same publication

Beleaguered centre back Hummels was quick to take aim at his team’s ‘nonsensical’ football after the loss, with the veteran angered by the nature of the efforts shipped. 

‘If you look at the Leverkusen game, we conceded four goals after unnecessarily losing the ball,’ he said.

‘That happened with the first, second and fourth goals here. I think we know what our problem is. The coach mentions it often enough.

‘We’re playing an awful lot of nonsensical football, a lot of illogical football and making our opponents so strong.

Mats Hummels took aim at Dortmund’s ‘nonsensical football’ in the wake of the first-leg defeat

‘Our football is also too complicated. If we play this way, we’ll sometimes win and sometimes lose but over the piece we won’t have success.’

Van Bronckhorst, meanwhile, expressed his delight with the victory but also stressed that the tie is only at its halfway stage.  

‘It is a great night, but only a great night,’ he said post-match.

He went on to add: ‘We are not through to the next round, which is what we want. We know we have to have a good performance next week as well.’