Nobody, no matter how tight the schedule might have been, could understand UEFA's decision to re-schedule the Borussia Dortmund vs Monaco match less than 24 hours after the German club's bus came under attack.
No matter how you look at it, and how much you might want to say "Oh, we must show them we are stronger than them and not let them win," asking the players, who had just gone through the trauma of being targeted by extremists with bombs with one of their teammates having to undergo surgery, to go onto the pitch and be "professional" was beyond comprehensible.
But do that the Borussia Dortmund players did, with the Westfalenstadion crowd making some extra noise for their players and watching on as their stars, not mentally ready to play as big a match as a Champions League quarterfinal, went through the motions.
At the end of the 90 minutes of the Champions League quarterfinal first leg, Monaco had a 3-2 lead over Dortmund.
Kylian Mbappe grabbed a brace for Monaco, with Sven Bender scoring an own goal.
For Dortmund, the goals came from Ousmane Dembele and Shinji Kagawa, the latter's a late strike keeping the German club in the tie.
After the match, Borussia Dortmund's manager Thomas Tuchel lashed out at UEFA.
"We were informed by text message that UEFA were making this decision," Tuchel said. "We would have liked more time to take stock. This gives you the feeling of impotence, that we have to keep functioning and nothing else matters."
Tuchel said the players were not in the right state of minds before the game and they should not have been playing so soon, no matter how "important" the match or how "tight" the schedule is for the remainder of the season.
"A decision made in Switzerland that concerns us directly," Tuchel added. "We will not forget it. It is a very bad feeling.
"A few minutes after this attack the only question that was asked was: 'Are you ready to play?' As if we had thrown a beer on our coach. At that time we did not know the reasons for this attack. There is a feeling of helplessness. The date was imposed on us. We weren't asked about playing the game.
"UEFA is eager to continue playing and, of course, we have to keep it going but we still want to be competitive. Every player has the right to deal with it in his way. The team did not feel in the mood, in which you must be for such a game.
"We were attacked as men and we tried to solve the problem on the ground. The players had the choice not to play but no one chose this option."
UEFA, predictably, defended their decision.
"We were in touch with all parties and never received any information which suggested that any of the teams did not want to play," a statement said.
The fans at the Signal Iduna Park also made their feelings clear over the timing of the rescheduled match, putting up posters which read: "6.45 pm kickoff, are you kidding? F*** UEFA," and "Greedy old bastards – UEFA Mafia."
