Borussia Dortmund clinched a late away win. BVB won 2-1 (1-1) at 1. FSV Mainz 05 in injury time on matchday 17 of the Bundesliga.
The game got off to a flying start: Jae-Sung Lee gave Mainz the lead after just two minutes, two minutes later Julian Ryerson equalized with his first goal for BVB. Substitute Giovanni Reyna scored the winning goal for the visitors in the third minute of added time.
BVB has won all of their last six Bundesliga appearances in Mainz – with no other current BL team does BVB have such a long winning streak away from home.
Borussia last conceded more goals than after the first 17 matchdays of this season (25) in the 2007/08 season, when they had already conceded 30 goals at the time of comparison.
Mainz is now six Bundesliga games without a win (two draws, four defeats). This is a negative record under the direction of coach Bo Svensson.
Before the game, BVB sports director Sebastian Kehl spoke about the future of Jude Bellingham, Mats Hummels and Marco Reus. Here’s the message.
1. FSV Mainz 05 – BVB: The analysis
After the two early goals, BVB took over and put themselves under pressure, in which Mainz keeper Dahmen had to intervene twice. Dortmund not only in these sequences with a good counter-pressing and early ball acquisitions, in front of the goal but then hardly able to penetrate the penalty area against the densely stacked five-man chain of FSV.
The rare switching situations for the home side were all safe, as Mainz only moved up a little, didn’t show any precise passing and didn’t really take any risks. In the meantime, Borussia had more than 80 percent possession of the ball.
After the break, the game had few highlights. Dortmund couldn’t open up space when in possession, also because Malen and Adeyemi didn’t show any penetrating power in the direct duels. Mainz stuck to their defensive approach, but now managed to get behind the BVB defense and then cross into the penalty area better on the counterattack. However, these were only marginally dangerous.
After a little over an hour, the guests made three offensive changes and switched to a 4-1-4-1. However, this time it did not have the same effect as in the home game against Augsburg, when substitutes Bynoe-Gittens and Reyna scored – at first. Dortmund remained uninspired in the combination game, the zero fives defended without any problems – and almost scored the winning goal through Joker Stach after a counterattack shortly before the end (87th). Reyna did it after all – after submitting Haller, who was also substituted on.
Bo Svensson (Mainz coach): “It’s bitter for us that the goal came like that. In the beginning we didn’t have access because Dortmund were clearly the better team. Over time we got better and better in the second half and had the chance to score a goal. There are a lot of positive things we can take away.”
Edin Terzic (Dortmund coach): “We’re very happy with the end result. After going behind, the team showed a really good reaction and quickly rewarded themselves with the equaliser. With almost the last action, we’re the happier winners, it could have gone in any direction. We’re happy that we got off to a good start in the new year. We know that we still have a lot of work to do.”
1. FSV Mainz 05 – BVB: The data for the game
Gates: 1-0 Lee (2nd), 1-1 Ryerson (4th), 1-2 Reyna (90+3)
The star of the game: Giovanni Reyna (BVB)
Didn’t have many successful actions to offer in his 30 minutes of play. But the American scored the important winning goal for Borussia for the second time in a row – this time even in stoppage time.
The flop of the game: Donyell Malen (BVB)
Before he was substituted, he led most of the duels at Dortmund, but lost more than half of them and only had one noteworthy offensive scene. Otherwise as usual: couldn’t get his pace on the pitch and got stuck in the one-on-one situations.
The referee: Sascha Stegemann
Had everything under control in an encounter without tricky scenes.
