Xabi Alonso is pretty close to ending Bayern Munich’s eleven consecutive seasons of Bundesliga hegemony. Bayer Leverkusen beat Mainz, the penultimate classified, with more difficulty than expected, and increasing its lead to eleven points about Bayern itself, who host RB Leipzig tomorrow, eleven days before the end of the championship.
Beyond the fact that this time their success was not very brilliant, it was very difficult to fight back and favored by the mistakes of the rival goalkeeper in the goals, the fact that remain unbeaten in their 33 games this season (23 of them from the Bundesliga) makes Xabi Alonso’s team almost unbeatable.
Xhaka opened the scoring early
It took almost three minutes for Leverkusen to open the scoring. Granite Xhaka He took advantage of the ball denied by the defense to unleash a beautiful left-footed shot from the edge of the area that went over the head of Robin Zentner, who was stuck and he didn’t even extend his arms to try to deflect the ball.
All indicated that the leader would make the three points effortlessly but Mainz reacted with surprise tied the game and even the extra few dangerous arrivals afterwards.
Kohr doesn’t take long to tie
The 1-1 came at a set piece. Nadiem Amiri took a free kick, Silvan Widner recovered with a header and Dominik Kohr, on the rebound, put the ball into the top corner (8′).
After a few moments of confusion, Leverkusen completely took over the game and harassed Mainz but lacked the success to convert any of the chances they had.
Jonas Hofmann has two heads-up on Zentner but he won the game in both, meanwhile Alejandro Grimaldo also tested the visiting goalkeeper with his superb strike after a corner and a free kick.
Xabi Alonso protested to the referee
The tension of the match was reflected in the yellow card that Xabi Alonso received for protesting an uncalled foul on Jeremie Frimpong. The Tolosa coach approached the referee at half-time to vigorously repeat his complaints and even shook his hand as they left the pitch.
In the second half, Leverkusen came back into the fight, although Mainz gave them a few scares. It stayed 1-1 and, as usually happens in these cases, the goal came in the most unexpected way.
Zentner, key to his serious mistake at 2-1
Robert Andrich tried his luck from afar with a shot that didn’t look like a problem but Zentner, already 1-0 down, let the ball slip through his hands when he blocked it (68′).
Mainz’s resistance collapsed because of this error and the straight red card to Jessic Ngankam in the 80th minute, Almost a quarter of an hour after coming on as a substitute, a stomp on Xhaka’s ankle finally sentenced the improved team to Bo Henriksen, who made his debut last night with a victory against Augsburg (1-0) after coming off the bench Jan Siewert.
Wirtz, happy centenary
Although he wasn’t as outstanding as he used to be, Florian Wirtz ended up celebrating his hundredth Bundesliga game with a triumph… aged just 20.
match lineup
1
30
twenty
12
4
6
8
3. 4
twenty-one
7
10
27
30
2
19
3
31
8
18
9
43
7
BayArena
Robin Zentner27
53′
Four. five’
82′
Silvan Widmer30
59′
Philip Mwene2
84′
Anthony Caci19
65′
48′
Sepp van den Berg3
Dominic Kohr31
6′
51′
67′
Leandro Barreiro8
2′
Nadiem Amiri18
82′
Karim Onisiwo9
41′
82′
55′
Brian Gruda43
64′
73′
89′
Lee Jae-Sung7
Replacements
Lasse Riess1
Maxim Dal3. 4
82′
Tim Muller39
Tom Krauss14
82′
82′
Joshua Guilavogui23
59′
Merveille Paper24
Marco Richter10
55′
Jessica NgankamEleven
64′
78′
79′
89′
coach
Xabi Alonso
Bo Henriksen
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
