Borussia Dortmund manager Niko Kovac blamed his side's 2-1 loss to Fortuna Dusseldorf on their intense training sessions.
Mathis Albert had fired the Black and Yellow in front after 20 minutes but second-half goals from Fabian Schleusener and Anas Slimani turned the tie around.
Kovac made six changes to his lineup from last weekend's clash although the rest got their chance after the break too.
After the match, the Croatian revealed that the defeat could be due to their tiring training sessions but lauded his team for giving their everything.
He said:
"“You could already see today that we really stepped it up a notch in our second week of training. Our legs were heavy. The first half was okay. In the second half, our resistance wasn’t quite what I had in mind. But we don’t want to read too much into it. Everyone gave it their all, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.” "said Kovac
Kovac fielded some of the heroes from their Oberhausen victory in the first half, with prolific marksman Serhou Guirassy taking on the captain's armband. Takato Yamamoto, scorer in the last game, and Enzo Duarte, his assist-maker, both featured in the XI too.
However, it was a 17-year-old Mathis Albert who struck for the visitors as he got on to the end of a long pass from goalkeeper Alexander Meyer before darting inside the box to round off the Dusseldorf custodian and make a simple finish for 1-0.
Dusseldorf fought their way back into the tie early into the second half as a free-kick was played into the box which was flicked on into Schleusener's path for him to restore parity for the home side. But their second goal came through some fine work from substitutes.
Lukas Eixler teed up Slimani from the right for the latter to strike a composed effort into the bottom corner. The BVB made one more substitution after falling behind, bringing in Arne Wessels for Elias Benkara, but it couldn't shift the tide in their favor as Dortmund lost 2-1.
Kovac later reflected on the situation of their squad too with World Cup stars missing in action.
"“Every team that had a lot of national team players at the World Cup is facing the same problem. So with our ten national team players, we’ve already had quite a few who aren’t here. But we’ll make up for it! We’ll get it done! The lads who joined us yesterday are in good physical shape.” "said the Croatian manager
Borussia Dortmund continue their pre-season in Japan next week.
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