This required a tremendous amount of running.
The pace of the match was blistering. How long could they keep it up?
Wang Shuo had a feeling that this was the same tactic Klopp's Mainz had used against Labbadia's Bayer Leverkusen back in the day.
And when many teams played against Klopp's Mainz or Dortmund, they would opt to play conservatively at the start, waiting for that initial wave of attacks to pass and looking for an opening to exploit.
Now, Dortmund was also waiting.
After the ten-minute mark, Mainz's tempo had clearly started to slow.
In the 13th minute, the right-back, Bungert, pushed far up the pitch. As he received the ball, he was intercepted by Grosskreutz and couldn't break through on the flank, so he passed to Caliguri.
Caliguri's ball control was superb. Facing a double-team from the advancing Schmelzer and Shahin, he surprisingly managed to carry the ball out and shield it.
