After six wins and a draw, after so many positive headlines talking of Borussia Dortmund enjoying a special kind of early season form, the Bundesliga runners-up of last season concluded the main part of their pre-season with a hefty 4-0 defeat at the hands of Liverpool.

 

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Boris Rupert reports from Liverpool

Jürgen Klopp hit the nail on the head: “Where we are right now, our opponents today were just too good for us. The physicality Liverpool were able to bring to the game just isn’t there for us just yet.” The English side is a week further into their preparations for the new season, have emerged from the fitness trough and are set to go in their domestic league next weekend.

Sven Bender explained that “The Reds were just a yard quicker all over the park today. We certainly expected to do more but we just couldn’t get started. The result is a fair one. It’s just good that there weren’t any points at stake.”

The coach continued, “If you draw the right conclusions from results like this then it can only be positive. There were no points on offer but we won a lot of insight. Klopp refused to acknowledge that his team had had an awkward pre-season with players arriving back in dribs and drabs from the World Cup.

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“The first goal saw us leave a gaping hole; the second was a free header and to be fair we were a few percent short in all areas today. That’s why we got a drubbing and why it hurts.”

A game for which Kevin Großkreutz had returned early from his break disappointed on so many levels and no-one was in any doubt like Sven Bender, “We all know what you have to do to win games at this level and Liverpool were right at it today, as we will have to be from now on!”

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On Wednesday BVB take on Bayern Munich in the Supercup before on Saturday they meet Stuttgarter Kickers in the German (DFB) Cup. Bender was keen to stress, though, “that it would be wrong to make too much of the result today. Yes, it should act as a wake-up call and make us focus on what we have to do. It is going to get a bit hectic now but we know we are not the kind of team that should lose 4-0 in pre-season no matter how well our opponents play.”

That said, Jürgen Klopp was philosophical, “We are still in the heart of pre-season, and we always put a lot of physical effort into our pre-season which benefits us as the long season progresses, and so results like this can happen.”