Niko Kovac conceded that Borussia Dortmund deserved to exit the Champions League after squandering their two-goal aggregate advantage against Atalanta on Wednesday. 

Kovac watched on as Dortmund were beaten 4-1 by Atalanta in the second leg, completing a 4-3 aggregate win for the Serie A side. 

Gianluca Scamacca and Davide Zappacosta levelled the tie with their first-half goals, before Mario Pasalic put Atalanta ahead in the 57th minute. 

However, Karim Adeyemi came off the bench to fire past Marco Carnesecchi 15 minutes from time as both sides seemed prepared to battle it out in extra time. 

But there was to be one more final twist in second-half stoppage time when Ramy Bensebaini caught Nikola Krstovic with a high boot inside the box, with referee Jose Maria Sanchez Martinez pointing to the spot after a VAR review while also sending off the Dortmund defender. 

Lazar Samardzic stepped up to convert from 12 yards in the 98th minute as Atalanta became the first side to overturn a two-goal first-leg deficit in a Champions League knockout tie since Liverpool progressed past Barcelona in the 2018-19 semi-final.

For BVB, meanwhile, they are now just the second German side to be eliminated from a two-legged Champions League knockout tie when winning the first leg by 2+ goals, after Wolfsburg vs Real Madrid in the 2015-16 quarter-finals. 

"When you concede four goals in the Champions League, as we have already done in the league phase, it's difficult," Kovac told DAZN.

"We don't need to talk about the penalty now. We just weren't really there in the moments when we conceded the goals.

"In the Champions League, mistakes like that are punished, so we are very disappointed and quite downhearted.

"After playing really well at home, we can't let a tie like this slip away here, even if we knew it was going to be tough.

"We're a Bundesliga team, and we have to be able to handle that. We deserved to be knocked out. We didn't perform well enough to progress."

Individual errors did not help Dortmund in the tie, with Bensebaini's miserable outing beginning by sliding in to steer Lorenzo Bernasconi's cross to the back post for Scamacca to open the scoring with just five minutes on the clock. 

The Algerian then deflected Zappacosta's shot at goal over Gregor Kobel, before the Dortmund goalkeeper's poor pass out from the back led to Pasalic crossing for Krstovic, who was caught on his forehead by Bensebaini. 

But Emre Can was keen not to pinpoint any particular player as key to their exit, adding: "I'm not blaming any player, but when you make so many individual mistakes, it's difficult to progress. 

"And if we had taken our chances – and I believe we had a few clear-cut opportunities in the second half – then it would have been very, very unfortunate in the end.

"But to be honest, we deserved to be knocked out. It hurts a lot. How many times has Gregor helped and saved us this season?

"The way he pulled off another great save in the first half was incredible. I feel sorry for him! As I said, no blame, no blame at all. We're all in it together."