Gladbach climb to top half with a win in Mainz

Borussia Mönchengladbach narrowly beat cellar-dwellers Mainz in the opening fixture of matchday 13.

Mainz’s interim coach Benjamin Hoffmann made some bold decisions in his team selection. While Robin Zentner is still out with an injury, Daniel Batz is preferred in goal instead of Lasse Rieß. Maxim Leitsch and Nelson Weiper were also handed rare starts, while Fabio Moreno Fell made his debut from the start.

The hosts were the brightest side in the early exchanges, but they were fortunate not to go behind in the big moment of the first-half. Having made a brilliant last-ditch clearance, Leitsch beat his own goalkeeper from the resulting corner-kick.

However, the goal was chalked off as Yannik Engelhardt’s hand touched the ball on the goalline after Leitsch’s header. The rest of the half lacked clear-cut chances, with Jens Castrop and Haris Tabakovic failing to hit the target from promising positions.

Moreno Fell scored goals for fun for Mainz’s second team, and he also hit the woodwork twice here in the space of a few seconds. However, it wouldn’t have counted as he was in an offside position at the beginning of the action.

Mainz’s new-look team improved after the restart as Weiper was denied by the sought-after Gladbach shot-stopper Moritz Nicolas. But, the sequence of the first-half repeated when they once again failed to properly defend a corner-kick.

Batz, who is the third goalkeeper to feature for Mainz this season, made a spectacular save from Castrop’s close-range effort, but he was beaten by one of his players for the second time. Having ended his scoreless run a fortnight ago, Danny da Costa scored an own-goal from Haris Tabakovic’s misguided header.  

Weiper squandered another chance for Mainz when his free header missed the target after a brilliant wing play by Jae-sung Lee. At the other end, Batz kept the strugglers in the game with a great save to deny Shuto Machino. Mainz pushed for an equalizer late in the game, but Batz had to make another save from Rocco Reitz’s shot.

After no wins from the first eight league games, Gladbach have now collected 13 points from five matches. Eugen Polanski, who has played four seasons in Mainz, proved the club made the right decision in trusting him.

Mainz will remain bottom of the Bundesliga for another week, and their next game is away at Bayern. Gladbach face another team currently led by an interim coach with a home game against Wolfsburg.