Niko Kovac believes his Borussia Dortmund team showed "too much respect" to Inter during Wednesday's 2-0 Champions League defeat, which condemned them to a play-off place.

Federico Dimarco and Andy Diouf scored in the second half to decide a tight game at Signal Iduna Park, as Dortmund registered just one shot on target and 0.94 expected goals (xG).

Having finished 17th in the league stage, Dortmund could now face an all-Bundesliga matchup with Bayer Leverkusen in the play-offs, with Atalanta their other potential opponents.

Kovac led BVB through the play-offs last season, as they overcame Lille 3-2 on aggregate, before losing 5-3 to Barcelona on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

Though he is not daunted by the prospect of playing two additional games, Kovac felt his team could have done more in their league-stage finale. 

"It was a tough game," he said. "We had a chance after 10 minutes through Serhou [Guirassy]. If he had kept his cool and put the ball in the net, the game might have turned out differently. 

"Now, we're in the play-offs, just like last year. We will have to play the second game away. 

"But it's okay. If you want to reach the round of 16, you have to win – no matter where and no matter who you're playing against. 

"My feeling was that we showed a little too much respect today. It's Inter, but we have our qualities, too. 

"However, we didn't finish certain situations because we made the wrong decisions. You still have to come away from this game with a 0-0 draw."

Dortmund have now failed to score in their last two Champions League games, having also lost 2-0 to Tottenham on matchday seven.

Before then, they had scored in seven straight matches in the competition, while this was the first instance of them failing to find the net in a home group or league-stage game since a goalless draw with AC Milan in October 2023.