Returnee Patrik Schick put his hands on his hips in disappointment, coach Xabi Alonso stepped onto the pitch with a rather petrified expression: Bayer 04 Leverkusen were put down by their favorite opponents of the last few years in their race to catch up in Europe. The Werkself suffered a 2-3 (1-2) defeat at home against FSV Mainz 05 and slipped back to tenth place behind Mainz. “We’re getting very strange, negligent goals again. Mainz punished us coldly,” said Leverkusen’s Nadiem Amiri on the DAZN streaming service.
The Werkself lost the first leg of the Europa League play-off against AS Monaco on Thursday with the same result. “If you keep conceding that many goals, you can’t win,” Amiri stressed.
In the Mainz block, numerous disguised fans celebrated exuberantly with their four-colored flags, while the north curve in Leverkusen was almost half empty seconds after the final whistle. The duel between the Rhinelanders and Rheinhessen on Carnival Sunday was not a good one, but it was an entertaining and at times crazy game with five goals, one converted, one missed and one conceded penalty, a 54-minute first half, a red card and victorious guests. “A deserved and hard-fought victory,” said Mainz sports director Martin Schmidt, looking forward to the trip to the Shrove Monday parade.
The Frenchman Anthony Caci with his second Bundesliga goal (26th) and Leandro Barreiro (45th 4) put Mainz twice in the lead, Nadiem Amiri (31st) and Schick (58th) only in the Bundesliga comeback after almost four months 142 seconds after his substitution, each equalized. A penalty kick from Marcus Ingvartsen secured Mainz, who had previously lost eight of ten games against Leverkusen, their fifth away win of the season (82nd). Amine Adli had previously seen the red card for an emergency brake.
At Bayer, the trauma of the penalty kick that had been believed to be suppressed also returned. After the Werkself had missed all six penalties in 2022 and Edmond Tapsoba had only just been promoted to penalty taker after a goal against Bochum, the Burkinabe player also missed (23′).
The initial phase was tough, it took 20 minutes until the first excitement. After a pressure hit between Anton Stach and Sardar Azmoun, who was in the starting XI for the first time since matchday 3, referee Robert Schröder awarded a penalty kick. According to the pictures, he stayed with him, even though Stach had hit the ball. But Tapsoba shot weakly, Dahmen was in the right corner and even held the ball.
Two very gross individual mistakes favored the two goals in little more than five minutes. First, Caci used a ricochet from Odilon Kossounou. Then Azmoun took advantage of a miss from Edimilson Fernandes and served Amiri, who converted the ball from the turn. In the 42nd minute, Tapsoba almost became unlucky for good, but goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky prevented an own goal after his rebound.
It was 1:2, simple but well executed: Jae Sung Lee extended a long ball from Caci with his head and Barreiro completed a volley. In the seventh minute of added time, Schröder called a penalty for Mainz, but denied it because Adli had been fouled in the other penalty area.
Alonso, who had made six substitutions before the game, could no longer afford to save energy for Thursday. He made two substitutions at half-time and ten minutes later brought in Schick and Florian Wirtz, the two outstanding Bayer players of the previous season, both of whom had been injured for a long time. But after two rebounds, Schick showed his nose for goal and scored directly. Hradecky then made excellent saves twice against Karim Onisiwo and Lee before the visitors were able to decide.
