Frankfurt (Germany), 19 Mar (LaPresse) – ‘I did an examination of conscience. I fear it may have been the biggest mistake of my career.’ Roma defender Mats Hummels said this about the mistake in the Europa League round of 16 return match against Athletic Bilbao that cost him a red card after eleven minutes of play. In his podcast, the German explained that in his career he has made ‘about four mistakes of this magnitude’, ‘quite stupid, but often ended well’ for the teams he played for. As an example, the 36-year-old cited a mistake against Real Madrid in the semi-final of the 2013 Champions League: ‘But then you win the game 4-1 and it doesn't weigh as much as before. You didn't kick your team out on your own'. After the sending-off against Athletic, Roma lost 3-1 and were eliminated. ‘It was really terrible,’ said the 2014 world champion, ’being in the locker room and hoping the whole game to make it through. You know that each of your teammates has to run more now, just because of you. Everyone on the field is suffering because of you.’ The days after the game, in which he was harshly criticised, ‘really sucked,’ said Hummels again, who went on to explain that he had watched the episode again and that ‘it looks even worse on TV. Because it is even more obvious that this pass should not have been made'. However, the club's support helped him a lot and ‘he has rarely experienced such a good reaction from a team to something like this,’ the defender said. Hummels went on to describe the red card he received for the foul following the bad pass as a ‘harsh decision’. ‘In my opinion, it was not a red card incident because it happened a few metres into our half of the pitch. I was very surprised that he received a straight red. If the referee had given a yellow, I don't think Var would then have changed it to a red,' the former German national team player commented further.
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