Mainz easily dispatch harmless Kiel, move up to seventh place

Goals from Nadiem Amiri, Jonathan Burkardt, and Jae Sung Lee ensured that FSV Mainz 05 were easily able to dispatch Kiel in a match-day 11 Bundesliga fixture Sunday afternoon.

Bo Henriksen’s FSV Mainz 05 have pulled themselves up to seventh place in the Bundesliga table after securing their second consecutive league win. Hessen’s “carnival club” travelled north to Schleswig Holstein to take on Marcel Rapp’s Kiel on Sunday afternoon. Rapp’s newly promoted team found themselves all-too-easily dispatched in their first home match since securing their first ever Bundesliga victory two rounds back. Kiel remain in the automatic relegation zone following their eighth defeat of the season.

Henriksen made no personnel changes, relying upon the same XI that upset Dortmund just prior to the international break.Kiel trainer Rapp went with two changes to the team that lost against Bremen last round. As expected, former Mainz professional Lewis Holtby took the place of the suspended Magnus Knudsen. Rapp also opted to drop midfielder Armin Gigovic in favor of striker Shuto Machino. Steven Skrzybski dropped back to the ten slot behind Machino and surprise new Holstein starter Phil Harres as the Storks shifted from a 3-5-2 to a 3-4-1-2. 

The Rheinhessen guests started the match significantly stronger and it wasn’t long before they scored a well-deserved opener. A wonderful team sequence in the 11th concluded with Nadiem Amiri netting the 1-0 after a nice one-two with Paul Nebel. The hosts weren’t able to muster up much in terms of a response apart from a Harres header over in the 23rd. Amiri came closer to doubling the advantage when his skillfully-taken free-kick from about 18 meters out struck the crossbar in the 33rd. 

By that time, Rapp had seen enough and opted to make a tactically-minded double change in the 34th. Gigovic and winger Finn Porath entered on behalf of Machino and Tymoteusz Puchacz. Unfortunately for the Holstein gaffer, the new arrangement received no time to shift the tenor of the match as Mainz were awarded a penalty the 35th. Match official Sascha Stegemann ruled that Gigovic had handled a ball in the box. Jonathan Burkardt converted the 2-0 from the spot in the 37th. 

Before the half was out, matters nearly got much worse for Rapp’s side. Kiel’s Nicolai Remberg narrowly missed scoring his second own-goal of the season in the 39th. Rapp reacted by pulling the trigger on his third change of the night at the restart. Benedikt Pilcher relieved Holtby for the second 45. The move produced nothing as Henriksen’s Pfälzer scored the decisive 3-0 not long after the second-half began.

Jae-Sung Lee commemorated his 100th Bundesliga fixture by scoring against his former employer. Lee polished off an Anthony Caci cross for the 3-0 in the 53rd. Nothing much other than another near Lee chance and a close effort from Lee’s countryman Hyunseok Hong transpired afterwards. Mainz cruised to victory in a match essentially played at half-speed.