Borussia Mönchengladbach goes unbeaten into the 5th matchday of the Bundesliga. But 1. FSV Mainz 05 also got off to an extremely good start to the season - and continued this in a close game. Gladbach had a lot of bad luck at the beginning of the second half, and the opponent took advantage of this.
Borussia Mönchengladbach suffered their first defeat of the season under new coach Daniel Farke - and thus missed the best start since the glory days of Vogts and Heynckes. The eleven from the Lower Rhine painfully lost 0:1 (0:0) to the extremely courageous FSV Mainz 05.
Aaron Martin (55th) shot the guests to their third win of the season and fifth place with ten points. Immediately before Mainz took the lead, Gladbach defender Ko Itakura saw the red card for an emergency brake. Borussia is therefore only ninth in the table with eight points - a win over Mainz would have meant the best gallop for the foals since the last championship season in 1976/77.
As expected, Gladbach's last-minute additions Julian Weigl and Nathan N'Goumou took a seat on the bench, both coming on in the closing stages. Compared to the 1-1 draw at series champions Bayern Munich, Farke alone brought Ramy Bensebaini for Luca Netz.
The majority of the 51,210 spectators in Borussia Park and Farke did not agree with the initial phase. Mainz attacked Gladbach, who were strong at home, early on and created the first big chance through Silvan Widmer, who forced his Swiss compatriot Yann Sommer to make a brilliant save with a header from a few meters (7th).
Sommer, who with his 267th Bundesliga appearance replaced the Swede Ronnie Hellström as the foreign record keeper in the upper house, not only followed up on his fabulous 19 saves from the previous week at FC Bayern in this scene - just a minute later the keeper was also in the sharp Leandro Barreiro's long-range shot just in time in the bottom corner.
After 15 minutes, the 05ers had already fired six shots on goal, the team from the Lower Rhine barely got into the opposing half. After that, however, Gladbach gradually found order and control, the resurgent Marcus Thuram sent the first sign of life from the home side with a double chance (23rd).
Farke was still dissatisfied, he gesticulated wildly and kicked over an aluminum suitcase. But his team continued to improve, after a counterattack Thuram's shot caressed the top of the bar (30').
After an air hole in Mainz's Maxim Leitsch, Thuram had a free rein in the 34th minute. Instead of finishing, the Frenchman decided to pass to Florian Neuhaus, who had run with him, Dominik Kohr cleared the unclean pass. At least now it was a game between two teams with their visors wide open.
After the break, Gladbach had to make two changes due to injury, Nico Elvedi and Alassane Plea couldn't continue. Captain Lars Stindl made his comeback after an injury break. Shortly thereafter, Gladbach was down to ten after Itakura's emergency brake against Karim Onisiwo. Aaron converted the free kick that followed as soft as butter. Gladbach had to take even more risks, national player Jonas Hofmann didn't hit the ball properly in front of Zentner (65'). On the other side, Mainz had more chances.
