Borussia Dortmund-Mainz is a Bundesliga Week 16 match and is played on Tuesday at 8:30pm: TV, likely lineups, predictions.
Yellow and yellow fans will forever associate Mainz with that famous Sunday in late May 2023, when their dream of ending Bayern Munich’s dominance vanished against the red and white, already safe and with nothing left to lose. Borussia Dortmund would have only needed to beat them to get the party started but Edin Terzic’s team resoundingly did not go beyond a 2-2 draw, saying goodbye to a title they already felt was theirs.
Seven months later Reus and his teammates meet Mainz again, which, compared to the last day of last season, fares considerably worse. On the bench, meanwhile, is no longer Bo Svensson, replaced a few weeks ago by Jan Siwiert following a long series of disappointing results. The Nullfunfers, in fact, lie in last place in the standings tied on points with newly promoted Darmstadt: they have scored only 9 in 15 rounds. Only 2 wins for the red-and-whites, the last one dating back to the beginning of November: last Saturday came the second consecutive home defeat. And if a knockout with Freiburg was almost to be reckoned with, the one with a direct contender for salvation like Heidenheim, which went through 1-0 at the MEWA Arena, hurt badly. Only Cologne has scored fewer goals than Mainz, which has been dry in four of its last five games.
Under these conditions it will be really difficult to get out of Signal Iduna Park unscathed against a team like Borussia that cannot afford any more breaks.
(Jae-Sung Lee of Mainz TheVeggente.it (Ansa)
Augsburg’s draw against Augsburg four days ago has further distanced Dortmund from the top three and it has slipped to -13 from the top, with the title already looking like a pipe dream. Terzic in this first part of the season can console himself with the Champions League, where his Borussia managed to finish first in an iron group that also included Psg, AC Milan and Newcastle, and in the round of 16 they will face Psv Eindhoven.
The prediction
Dortmund have not won any of their last five games and have not won in the league since a 4-2 win away from Monchengladbach in late November. The Yellowoniers can’t slip up in such a game against such a struggling opponent: expect at least 3 goals overall.
Borussia Dortmund-Mainz
likely lineups.
BORUSSIA DORTMUND (4-3-3): Kobel; Meunier, Hummels, Schlotterbeck, Bensebaini; Reus, Emre Can, Brandt; Malen, Füllkrug, Bynoe-Gittens.
MAINZ (4-2-3-1): Batz; da Costa, van den Berg, Kohr, Mwene; Papela, Krauß; Gruda, Lee, Richter; Ajorque.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 3-0
