Head coach Xabi Alonso made four changes to his starting XI compared with the 3-2 win in Dortmund with Matej Kovar in goal in place of Lukas Hradecky. For the first time this season without Jonathan Tah, sidelined with a cold, and with Granit Xhaka captain on the night for the first time there was a long delay at the start of the game. The Mainz top goalscorer Jonathan Burkhardt had to be treated on the pitch and was unable to continue due to a muscle injury. Armindo Sieb came off the bench to replace him on four minutes.
The top match between the teams in second and fifth began with a confused situation in the Mainz penalty area when Patrik Schick squared the ball and Andreas Hanche-Olsen cleared off the line ahead of Exequiel Palacios (8’). While the Werkself dominated the ball and the opposition as the game progressed, the visitors again and again disrupted the flow of the game with minor transgressions. The German double winners increasingly pressed Mainz back into their own half with Aleix Garciahaving a double chance on 18 minutes. The next good chance fell to Piero Hincapie five minutes later. FSV had their first shot on goal just after the half-hour mark but the effort from Stefan Bell landed in the arms of Kovar. During a quiet phase of the game, tried his luck from distance (41') but the two sides went into half-time with the score at 0-0.
There were no changes at the break – and the second 45 started with a brilliant free kick by Alejandro Grimaldo. The talented Spaniard hit the ball from 18 metres out into the corner of the net and ran to celebrate in front of the North Stand (48'). At the other end, Kovar pulled off an impressive save to deny Anthony Caci and the Czech keeper also made a save to keep out Kaishu Sano (57'). The Werkself had the upper hand and Wirtz hit a tricky long-distance effort just after the hour mark. Then followed a phase where Leverkusen dominated but were more focused on safety and control rather than counter pressing and goalmouth action. Towards the end of the game, Jeremie Frimpong tested the Mainz keeper Robin Zentner (82') and the visitors’ keeper also kept out an effort from Nathan Tella (83'). There was little action after that and the tenth win in succession was secured.
The Werkself have another Bundesliga home game this week: Saturday, 8 January, brings the top match against Borussia Mönchengladbach with an 18.30 CET kick-off. That is followed by an away game in the Champions League at Atletico Madrid (21 January) and the Bundesliga away game at RB Leipzig (25 January).
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Kovar - Mukiele, Tapsoba, Hincapie - Frimpong, Xhaka, Garcia, Grimaldo - Palacios, Wirtz (Terrier 88') - Schick (Tella 62')
Mainz: Zentner - da Costa, Bell (Leitsch 80'), Hanche-Olsen - Caci, Sano, Kohr, Mwene (Widmer 80') - Nebel, Lee (Hong 66') - Burkardt (Sieb 3’, Weiper 66’)
Goals: 1-0 Grimaldo (48’)
Yellow cards: Mukiele, Xhaka - Sieb, Bell, Caci
Red cards: Henriksen (head coach)
Referee: Tobias Welz (Wiesbaden)
Attendance: 30,210 (sold out) at the BayArena
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