Borussia Dortmund's pre-season campaign was met with early setback as Fortuna Dusseldorf beat them 2-1 at the Merkur Spiel-Arena on Saturday.
Mathis Albert had put the BVB in front after only 20 minutes before second-half goals from Fabian Schleusener and Anas Slimani won it for the Fortunen.
Having beaten RW Oberhausen 3-1 in their first match last weekend, Niko Kovac's side were expected to prevail once again.
But they lacked the urgency they displayed last weekend and went down on the back of a toothless display after the break.
Kovac makes raft of changes
Head coach Niko Kovac made sweeping changes to his XI from the one that started against Oberhausen last weekend, bringing in Serhou Guirassy as the captain and rewarding Takato Yamamoto for his explosive debut with a start tonight.
Enzo Duarte, who assisted Yamamoto's goal against Oberhausen, also came into the XI while another summer signing Joane Gadou was also handed his first start for Borussia Dortmund. Alexander Meyer kept his place in between the sticks, while Jan-Luca Riedl, Marwan-Omir Mirza, Filippo Mane and Almugera Kabar made their second consecutive start too.
Albert gives BVB the lead
Once again, Dortmund took some time to get going but went in front after 20 minutes through young American gun Albert. The 17-year-old latched on to a long pass from Meyer, prancing forward to evade his marker before rounding the Dusseldorf goalkeeper to fire it into an empty net.
A completely new side in the second half
As expected, Kovac altered his lineup completely after the break with 10 players subbed in for the second half. Jobe Bellingham coming on for Duarte in the 44th minute was the only first-half change while Arne Wessels replacing Elias Benkara was their last substitution with only 12 minutes of normal time remaining.
While it was good to see everyone getting their share of gametime, the BVB looked wobbly at the back and seemed to lose control of the match too with Schleusener restoring parity for the home side just four minutes into the restart.
Dusseldorf too made a slew of changes in the second half but not all at once. Jordi Paulina was the first after 46 minutes, followed by five more before the hour mark and then three more substitutions another 10 minutes later.
Anas Slimani wins it for Dusseldorf
Slimani was one of the last substitutes for the hosts but made the most impact as the Moroccan fired the winner for Dusseldorf with only 11 minutes of normal time remaining. Lukas Eixler got in-behind the BVB defense on the right to lay a looping cross for Slimani, who made a superb first-time finish into the bottom corner.
What next for Borussia Dortmund
Borussia Dortmund will fly out to Japan tomorrow for a pair of friendlies against Cerezo Osaka on Wednesday, 29 July and FC Tokyo on Saturday, 1 August.
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