Edin Terzic applauded his Borussia Dortmund players for their “wild” comeback which brought about a dramatic 2-2 draw with Bayern Munich in Saturday’s Klassiker.
Head coach Terzic saw his side fall two goals behind after Leon Goretzka and Leroy Sane both struck from long range.
He later suggested other teams would have folded at that point and crumpled to a heavy defeat, so Dortmund’s resilience and refusal to buckle brought cause for celebration.
Youssoufa Moukoko narrowed the deficit in the 74th minute, and Anthony Modeste equalised in the fifth minute of stoppage time when he headed in Nico Schlotterbeck’s cross.
The scenes of delirium inside Signal Iduna Park told their own story, with Dortmund halting a run of eight consecutive defeats to their great rivals.
“It was a very intense match,” Terzic said. “In the first half in particular, we defended very well and kept it compact in the middle.
“The ball was in front of us. We gave away only that one shot at goal which made it 1-0.
“At that point, it’s not so easy to keep your discipline when the emotions and the desire to take risks are being transmitted to the team from the stands.
“You then need to be careful that you don’t open up too early and that the gaps don’t become too big.”
Terzic responded to Sane’s 53rd-minute strike by bringing on substitutes Karim Adeyemi, Modeste and Thorgan Hazard in an effort to save the game.
“It got wild towards the end; that was also the aim of the substitutions,” Terzic said. “It was end to end.
“What was very positive was that we believed up until the last moment that something was still possible, even though we’d missed a huge opportunity to equalise in the 82nd minute.”
Modeste scuffed his shot from Adeyemi’s cross on that occasion, but after Bayern went down to 10 men, losing Kingsley Coman for a second bookable offence when he tugged at Adeyemi, there was a final twist to come.
“It was a very deserved point because we created many chances at the end,” Terzic said. “When you’re 2-0 down against Bayern, the match normally ends 4-0 or 5-0.
“That didn’t happen today. We were able to put an exclamation mark behind the mentality question for today.”