Borussia Dortmund have emerged 2-1 victors from their last two clashes with Mainz. BVB have won three and drawn two of their last five games in all competitions. Robert Lewandowski (right) has scored two goals in each of his last three games. Mainz's last victory over Dortmund came back in 2009 when they won 1-0 at the Coface Arena. Christian Heidel's team have won four of their five home games in the Bundesliga this season, losing just once. Goals have been hard to come by for Saturday's hosts, however, with just 15 scored from their 12 league games to date. A Mainz victory would move the club to within just two points of Jurgen Klopp's side in the table.
if we wanna stay in this title race, we need to win this one and tue game as well, cuz bayern is waiting just around the corner
It was a pretty good back and forth match.. Mainz really choked in front of net several times.. It shows the difference in quality. Dortmund had less clear cut chances and concerted them, Mainz had more then a handful and could only convert one super strike.. Who knew taking your chances wins you games
Dortmund boss Klopp delighted to pass Mainz 'test' The champions were forced to dig deep for the three points after going a goal down early on, and their boss was enthused by the resolve they showed at his former ground ***BTW, this wasn't Klopp's "former ground." Klopp never coached Mainz at the Coface Arena. It only opened last season. But what else would one expect from Goal.com except less than accurate stuff?? Jurgen Klopp believes Borussia Dortmund passed a test of their mettle on Saturday after they came from behind to record a 2-1 victory over Mainz in the Bundesliga. The 45-year-old's former side took an early lead through Marco Caligiuri, but die Schwarzgelben's first-half strikes from Marco Reus and Robert Lewandowski ensured the visitors made it four straight wins in all competitions. Speaking after the match, the coach spoke of his enjoyment at being involved in such a testing encounter, but was ultimately relieved to have returned to Signal Iduna Park with all three points. "This was an incredibly intense game," Klopp told reporters at the Coface Arena after the match. "Caligiuri's heroics were impressive, but we were then extremely clinical. "We made a really good football match out of it. This was a test of our mettle and we passed it." Click here for the entire article.
Didn't see the match, but kicker and bundesliga.de are reporting that Lewa scored both goals...Fox is reporting Reus scored 1 and Lewa 1. Wonder what the official verdict was?
He touched the ball with his thigh/buttock changing the trajectory of Marco's cross. The camera inside the goal clearly showed that. Whatever.
Cris, we had been linked with Adam Szalai before. I think it was either when we were still battling with Lewa's old club over a transfer fee or after Barrios' major injury and we needed another striker. Anyhow, Szalai was on Real Madrid's second team (Real Madrid Castilla) and apparently lit up their league. If the rumors were true, Real knew they wouldn't be using him and when word of our apparent interest got out, his price went up. I believe our interest was "real", but we didn't want to pay their price. Real wound up loaning Szalai to Mainz and then selling him there for less than 1M Euros. He's a 24-year old Hungarian striker who spent two or three years in VfB Stuttgart's youth setup before moving to Real Madrid. Ironically, one of the players they thought Szalai would not get past is Julian Schieber! LOL!! Anyhow, because Szalai scored eight goals in eight matches (1 against Bayern, 1 against Augsburg, 0 against Scheisse, 1 against Wolfsburg, 0 against Düsseldorf, 1 against Leverkusen, 3 against Hoffenheim and 1 against Bremen), many people thought his makes him a star and we would want him to replace Lewandowski when Lewandowski leaves after this season. You know. Because for some people, every young striker who has one hot streak is going to be a star....... Nevermind that in this previous two seasons in Mainz he put up a full 4 goals in 20 matches and a full 3 goals in 15 matches. Yeah, I believe this guy is getting better and might one day be a big player when it comes to Bundesliga scoring titles. But he isn't there yet and he sure as hell isn't the one we need to be looking at to replace Lewandowski. IMO, Szalai still isn't as good as Schieber........