Borussia Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel expressed his displeasure with Bayer Leverkusen's rough playing style after his team lost 2-0 to the Rhinelanders at the BayArena on Saturday night.
The hosts managed to suffocate Dortmund's possession game by rampant pressing high up the field. Leverkusen bullied the Black and Yellows with a very physical approach to the game, which saw them commit 21 fouls to BVB's seven.
Leverkusen manager Roger Schmidt told a joint postgame news conference: "I think we saw a very fair match. I didn't see a single atrocious foul."
But Dortmund boss Tuchel rebuked his counterpart, saying Leverkusen were fortunate to finish with 11 players on the pitch.
"'A fair match' said the coach of the team with 21 fouls to the coach of the team with seven fouls -- in that case I have a different idea of what a fair game is," Tuchel said. "This is the third time that we suffer more than 20 fouls, forcing us to make substitutions at half time due to injury.
"Gonzalo Castro and Sebastian Rode couldn't continue and people do as much as they can to prevent our players from dribbling and I think it oversteps the mark.
"Methods are used which, to such an extent, would usually ensure that you don't end the game with 11 men.
"I didn't see a dominant match with 35 percent possession and 21 fouls. In that case I saw a different match, sorry."
Schmidt answered: "You could say that Dortmund is very clever in drawing fouls. Possession does not equal dominance, you could see that very clearly today."
Dortmund midfielder Gonzalo Castro told reporters after the match: "When [Ousmane] Dembele and [Emre] Mor dribbled past their markers they could have only been stopped by fouls, but that's part of the game.
"We have to learn from that, stay calm in the future and make the most out of the chances that present themselves."
The 29-year-old had to be substituted after the first half due to injury concerns. He said: "I felt my abductors three minutes into the match. I was taken off at halftime, as we didn't want to take any risks. We'll have to wait and see in the next few days how serious it is."
Dortmund captain Marcel Schmelzer, meanwhile, had a similar view as his coach concerning Leverkusen's physicality:"I can't say if Leverkusen played too rough while I was on the field."
The left-back was brought on by Tuchel for Castro after the break.
He added: "But in the first half it was extreme at times, in my opinion. Especially during the phase when both their defensive midfielders [Charles Aranguiz and Kevin Kampl] picked up bookings. I thought their aggression was a bit over the top -- at least in the first half."
Dortmund picked up their second Bundesliga defeat on the road, failing to capitalise on their rivals Bayern Munich, who dropped two points earlier on Saturday afternoon in a 1-1 draw against FC Cologne at the Allianz Arena.
"Of course it would have been a 'big point' for us as Bayern only drew 1-1, but more importantly we would have put more distance between us and Bayer Leverkusen with a win," Castro said.
Leverkusen cut their gap behind Dortmund to two points.