Mats Hummels shrugs off Borussia Dortmund boo-boys

30 April 2016 06:53

Borussia Dortmund defender Mats Hummels played down the reaction of some fans at the Westfalenstadion to his decision to leave the club this summer.

Hummels was jeered by sections of the crowd each time he touched the ball on his first appearance for the Westphalians since putting in a transfer request earlier this week and saying he intends to join Bayern Munich next season.

A banner was also held up by a group of Dortmund fans saying he should leave "straight away", but Hummels shrugged it all off after helping his side to a 5-1 win over Wolfsburg which means his likely new employers Bayern have to wait at least another week before being crowned champions.

"They were not the real fans - they were just a group of about 300 who never really loved me in the first place, and they just used this as a stage to vent their anger," Hummels said, according to sport1.de.

"I could see who it was coming from."

Hummels was defended by his coach Thomas Tuchel, who praised the rest of the Westfalenstadion for honouring his captain's eight years at the club with applause.

"You don't need to be a genius to expect that the fans would have expressed their disappointment," Tuchel said at the post-match press conference.

"It was a very ambivalent atmosphere, though. His touches first drew whistles and then a majority of the fans tried to drown them out with their applause and make their voices heard.

"It's not a nice situation to feel this sort of an atmosphere for your captain in your own stadium, but Mats always knew that he would be defended by the team no matter what happened.

"This gave him the assurance he needed to be so relaxed about it all and play such a good game.

"Since he made his announcement on Thursday, there has been an atmosphere of solidarity around here. The team is a close-knit community."

As a result, Dortmund swept Wolfsburg aside to cut the deficit on Bayern to five points, keeping a theoretical chance open that they can win the title this season, even if it was the performance and not the points which pleased Tuchel the most.

Two goals in as many minutes from Shinji Kagawa and Adrian Ramos set Dortmund on their way to victory before Marco Reus added a third on the hour mark.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang then struck two quick-fire goals to put the result beyond doubt before Andre Schurrle grabbed a late consolation for Wolfsburg, whose hopes of qualifying for Europe next season ended.

"It's a great feeling to be able to rely on the team like this," said Tuchel.

"We created plenty of chances today and conceded very few, controlling the game more and more and deservedly winning."

Dortmund will bid to take the title down to the final game of the season when they travel to Eintracht Frankfurt next weekend, hoping that Ingolstadt can do them a favour by beating Bayern in a Bavarian derby.

Dortmund then host Cologne on the final day of the season with Bayern at home to relegated Hannover.

Source: PA