RB Leipzig conceded their third competitive defeat in a row against Mainz 05 and threatened to lose sight of their goals for the season. The guests squint at Europe.
Marcus Ingvartsen (9th minute), Ludovic Ajorque (57th) and Dominik Kohr (67th) scored the goals in Mainz’s 3-0 away win.
For the hosts, the defeat means the next major setback in the fight for the Champions League places. After the third bankruptcy from the last four games, the Saxons have to worry about participating in the premier class, which sporting director Max Eberl had described as a “must” before the game. The Leipzig team said goodbye to that Champions League with a painful 7-0 loss to Manchester City.
Mainz, on the other hand, can assert itself more and more as a real contender for an international place after the seventh game in a row without defeat.
Leipzig caught off guard early on
Against the second-best team of the second half of the season, Leipzig was caught off guard early on. Leandro Barreiro failed after a cross at RB keeper Janis Blaswich, but Ingvartsen easily dusted off the early tour of the visitors. The Saxons took a moment to recover from the early setback. A shot by Andre Silva was narrowly deflected wide of the goal (23′).
The guests acted from a compact defense and countered extremely dangerously: The active Ingvartsen scored, Blaswich prevented the 0:2 (25th). Just a little later, Barreiro headed the ball against the crossbar after a cross from Anton Stach (30′) – the Leipzig defense was completely off the mark in this phase.
The home fans whistled at the break
Offensively, the hosts lacked a brilliant idea for a long time, after a long ball from Dominik Szoboszlai, national striker Timo Werner appeared completely free in front of the Mainz goal – but failed to Robin Zentner (41st). At the half-time whistle there were whistles from their own fans for RB.
Rose brought on Amadou Haidara and David Raum in the second half, but there was no improvement in Leipzig’s game. Sturmtank Ajorque extended a pass from Stach fantastically into the far corner to make it 2-0, Kohr finally made the decision from a distance.
Leipzig against Dortmund during the week
RB Leipzig will host Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup (Wednesday, April 5th, 2023 at 8:45 p.m.).
In the Bundesliga, the Saxons are then challenged away at Hertha (Saturday, April 8th, 2023 at 6.30 p.m.). Mainz plays Werder Bremen at home three hours earlier.