#M05B04 review: Dust off and keep going

Bayer 04 had picked up 13 points from the first five games of the second half of the season, but the sixth outing brought the first setback of the year with a 3-2 defeat away at Mainz on Friday.

SUMMARY: A BACK-AND-FORTH GAME

Although Mainz applied enormous pressure from the start, the Werkself held the cards for a long period. Patrik Schick’s deflected effort from range in the 35th minute gave Leverkusen a narrow half-time lead. Mainz then levelled after the break through a free-kick from Aaron Martin. Lucas Alario had come on for the injured Schick and then restored the Werkself lead with a quarter of an hour remaining and had the team on track for a fifth straight win. However, the hosts struck back again in the closing minutes through two of their own substitutes, Jean-Paul Boetius and Marcus Ingvartsen, to leave Bayer 04 with nothing. Click here for our full report.

REACTION: “ANALYSE AND WORK WELL”

“Even though it wasn’t a foul for the free-kick to make it 1-1, it’s not an undeserved defeat. You also have to acknowledge that Mainz did really well,” said Lukas Hradecky in summary. But the captain then looked ahead in fighting spirit: “We have to analyse this now, work well from Monday and then win the next game. There’s no reason at all to look at everything that was so good in previous weeks negatively all of a sudden.” It was Robert Andrich who came out with the phrase “dust off and keep going. We’ll show Bielefeld that this evening was a one-off.”

PERSONNEL: STRIKERS ON TARGET

The centre-forwards did their job for Bayer 04 with Schick opening the scoring with his 20th goal of the season and remaining on track to break Stefan Kießling’s club record of 25 goals in a season from 2012/13. Alario was also on target straight after his introduction and showed his quality with a first-time finish for 2-1. The Argentine could’ve been the decisive man if he’d put away a one-on-one chance to make it 3-1 with nine minutes left on the clock.

STATS: MAINZ WITH MORE CHANCES

The Werkself had the advantage over Mainz in several areas, such as pass completion (81% to 71%), challenges (56%-44%) and possession (60%-40%). However, the hosts had much greater joy in front of goal, mustering up 18 shots to Leverkusen’s seven.

what the papers say: “Thrilling game”

Most media outlets were unanimous in how entertaining the game was. The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger spoke of “another wild football match involving Leverkusen”, and the Rheinische Post an “exciting game with plenty of twists and turns” in which “both teams showed they wanted a result”. The hosts’ strengths were also mentioned in reports. kicker online described Mainz as “mentality monsters”, while the Frankfurter Rundschau wrote of “beastly Mainz in a thrilling game”.

outlook: bielefeld and then bayern

Bayer 04 are next in action on Saturday, 26 February with a home game against Arminia Bielefeld. The following week brings a trip to Munich to take on leaders Bayern on Saturday, 5 March.