Leverkusen beats Mainz 1-0 and stays in the title race!

Leverkusen beats Mainz 1-0 and stays in the title race!

On Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Bayer played Leverkusen against FSV Mainz 05 in the Bayarena and was able to win the game 1-0. The kick-off took place at 8:30 p.m. and the encounter could not be seen on free TV, but was exclusively transferred to Sky. The preliminary appearance began at 8:00 p.m., while live streams were available via Sky Go and WoW TV, each with a necessary subscription. This game marked the end of the first half of Leverkusen, with the team further demonstrated by their title ambitions.

In the first 45 minutes, the hosts dominated the action, but could not score a goal. Florian Wirtz, who was explained by coach Xabi Alonso for both his offensive presence and for his later delay as a team, created several promising opportunities, including a dangerous shot on the goal, which was prevented by Andreas Hanche-Olsen. Mainz, which had celebrated six victories in the previous seven games, had a hard time and was only able to attach a shot by Stefan Bell in the first round, who was not a problem for Leverkusen's goalkeeper Matěj Kovář.

important victory for Leverkusen

The only goal of the game fell in the 48th minute. Alejandro Grimaldo converted a free kick after Wirtz was fouled in the penalty area. This goal turned out to be crucial in the fight for the championship, since Leverkusen was able to shorten the gap to Bayern Munich to just one point. Mainz tried to achieve the balance after the deficit, and had approaches through Jae-Sung Lee, but the defensive of Leverkusen stood, supported by some strong parades of her keeper Kovář.

The Mainz had to accept another setback early when their captain and top scorer Jonathan Burkardt injured themselves in the third minute and had to be replaced by Armindo Sieb. Despite the efforts of the guests, Leverkusen's goalkeeper Kovář was a secure support and defused Mainz's attempts, while the Leverkusen goalkeeper Robin Zentner was also challenged to thwart further opportunities from the Leverkusener.

individual awards and statistics

Florian Wirtz was named player of the game after initiating most of the shots and dribbling and creating many opportunities. The statistics clearly show the superiority of Leverkusen: they had 21 goal shots compared to only 4 from Mainz. Grimaldo scored the gate with a probability of only 9.5 percent, which underlines the surprise of the hit.

In the overall context of the Bundesliga season, Leverkusen is still in second place behind Bayern Munich. The table after 17 game days looks like this:

With this victory, Leverkusen asserts himself in the title race, while Mainz, which is currently in 5th place, has to continue to fight for better placement. It remains to be seen whether the Mainz can pull the necessary teachings from their last achievements to be more successful in the second half of the season.

The details of this exciting encounter were in particular from bundesliga.com . Additional information about the statistics of the Bundesliga were provided by fbref