Mainz 05 draws with Bayer 04 Leverkusen and guarantees place in the Conference League
Mainz 05 will play in the Europa Conference League next season. With a 2-2 draw against Bayer 04 Leverkusen, the Rhineland-Palatinate side secured sixth place. Leverkusen also set a new Bundesliga record.
It was clear in the opening minutes of the match that only one of the two teams was at stake: Leverkusen had no chance at all in what was a sportingly irrelevant match, Mainz had the first chance of the game with a scissor-kick from Hanche-Olsen (4th minute) and shortly afterwards even had a huge chance through Nebel, who put a rebound past the almost empty goal (7th minute).
In front of Mainz’s goal, however, very little happened in the first half. Somewhat surprisingly, regular goalkeeper Zentner returned, having recovered in time for the game, to replace the young Rieß in goal. Otherwise, Mainz coach Bo Henriksen fielded the same starting eleven as in the 4-1 win at VfL Bochum .
Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso, however, made four changes to his team in his final game as Leverkusen coach compared to the 4-2 defeat to Borussia Dortmund : Palacios, Garcia, Hofmann (first start since November), and Schick started in place of Frimpong, Andrich, Xhaka, and Adli. After just 25 minutes, he was forced to make another change: Grimaldo was injured and replaced by Arthur.
VAR disallows two Mainz goals – then fog hits
The substitution made little difference to Leverkusen’s weak performance; even at this point, Bayer 04 were extremely lucky not to be trailing. When Amiri finally put the ball in the net for what seemed like a deserved lead, VAR intervened and disallowed the goal due to Caci’s offside position (15′). A similar play occurred midway through the first half: Hanche-Olsen’s tap-in goal was disallowed because Hradecky had already had his hand on the ball (32′).
Mainz, however, remained completely unfazed by Cologne’s latest setback and finally scored a goal that counted: After Garcia lost the ball, Mainz quickly switched gears, and Amiri played through to Nebel, whose shot was deflected by Tah and found the near post (35′). Amiri should have even made it 2-0 in first-half stoppage time, but was denied by Hradecky, one-on-one with the Leverkusen keeper (45+3′).
And Leverkusen? In Xabi Alonso and defensive leader Tah’s last game, the runners-up only came close to Mainz’s goal once in the entire first half – but when they did, they were extremely dangerous: Tella, breaking through, laid the ball too wide in front of Zentner (42′).
Xabi Alonso couldn’t be satisfied with his team’s first half and made two substitutions at halftime, with Andrich and Adli replacing Tella and Hofmann. And indeed, his team, who had been completely outclassed in the first half, turned the game around within minutes. After a clumsy challenge by Hanche-Olsen on Schick, Leverkusen were awarded a penalty, which the fouled player confidently converted himself (50′). And just moments later, the Czech headed in a Garcia cross from a swiftly taken corner (54′).
Mainz had temporarily been eliminated from the international rankings due to the goal conceded, but now they also had a bit of luck on their side: After a challenge between Arthur and Lee in the Leverkusen penalty area, the VAR intervened and Reichel pointed to the penalty spot – a controversial decision to say the least, which captain Burkardt used from the penalty spot to equalise at 2-2 (63′).
VAR concedes Mainz’s third goal
Mainz thus returned to sixth place – and were increasingly confident as Leipzig fell behind in the parallel match. The game, which had initially been completely open in the second half, lost some of its edge in the closing stages, but the home side were closer to victory: Amiri’s shot flew just wide shortly before the end (88th minute), and in stoppage time, a third Mainz goal of the day was disallowed by VAR because Bell had lightly touched the ball with his fingertips shortly before his brilliant shot on the turn (90th+3).
So the score remained 2-2, which both teams were happy with in the end: Mainz reached 6th place thanks to the point and Leipzig’s defeat in the parallel game and will therefore be able to play in the Europa Conference League next season – and Leverkusen set a new Bundesliga record: 34 away games without defeat in a row – that had never happened before.
