Conference League
Drama shortly before the end: Mainz suffered its first bankruptcy
Updated 11/27/2025 – 8:50 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
The FSV is having a hard time in Romania and falls behind due to a penalty. In the last few minutes a crime thriller develops.
First defeat for FSV Mainz 05 in the Conference League 2025/26: The Bundesliga club lost 0-1 (0-0) after three wins in a row at Universitatea Craiova in Romania.
Assad Al Hamlawi scored from the penalty spot on Thursday evening to give the hosts a deserved victory (67th). Mainz woke up too late and was ultimately unlucky as Kacper Potulski’s supposed equalizer was canceled due to an offside position (89′).
Despite the first defeat on the fourth matchday after three previous wins, Mainz, who are struggling in the Bundesliga, are still on course for the knockout phase in Europe.
After an even opening phase, Henriksen had to make the first substitution of the game in the 24th minute: regular goalkeeper Robin Zentner was unable to continue due to complaints in the adductor area. Lasse Rieß came in for him, making his debut in the European Cup.
Shortly afterwards, Dominik Kohr forced Craiova’s goalkeeper Pavlo Isenko into a brilliant save when he directed a header from the Mainz defender onto the crossbar. Because of a foul, a goal wouldn’t have counted anyway. Afterwards, Mainz found it difficult to come up with clear offensive actions in a disjointed game. But Craiova didn’t get any dangerous shots until the break.
The Mainz team’s performance in the first half was “really too poor,” said club and board chairman Stefan Hofmann during the break.
The game remained tough at the start of the second half before 18-year-old Kacper Potulski brought down Craiova professional Alexandru Cicaldau in his own penalty area. Al-Hamlawi, who had just been substituted, safely converted the penalty. Anyone who had hoped for a quick reaction from Mainz was disappointed. Craiova was even closer to making it 2-0 than FSV was to equalizing.
In the final phase, Potulski headed the 05ers from a free kick to make it 1-1 (88th). But after minutes of checking by the VAR, the goal was disallowed due to an offside position.