Mainz edge Augsburg for first win of season as both sides end with 10 men
Last weekend’s disappointing defeat to 10-man Werder Bremen aside, Mainz have been in inspired form under Bo Henriksen, who stole the upper hand on his friend and countryman Jess Thorup in the early stages here.
Armindo Sieb opened the scoring after just 13 minutes, rising high to meet Phillipp Mwene’s cross and head into the roof of the net for his maiden Bundesliga strike.
Augsburg could barely catch their breaths before the lead was doubled by Jonathan Burkardt, who played it wide before darting into the box to meet Mwene’s return ball and nod inside the near post.
The home fans at the WWK Arena refused to have their spirits dampened by the nightmare start, and that passion was clearly felt by the players, who dramatically improved their position by half-time.
They didn’t have to wait too long for a response, with Marius Wolf’s free-kick played back into the mix by Jeffrey Gouweleeuw and smashed in from close range by Keven Schlotterbeck.
Then, dangerman Nadiem Amiri - scorer of three goals in four appearances for Mainz this season - was shown a second yellow card for halting Ruben Vargas on the counter, handing Augsburg a man advantage for the second period.
However, Mainz had clearly taken notes from how Bremen dealt with being a man down against them on Sunday and soon restored their two-goal advantage.
Substitute Aymen Barkok found the far post with an inswinging ball, allowing Burkardt to slide in and net his second of the game.
Undeterred by the task at hand, Samuel Essende replied by heading in Dimitris Giannoulis’ cross from the left-hand side, but he was then bizarrely sent off himself for kicking out at Dominik Kohr off the ball.
Nevertheless, Augsburg remained on the front foot, as Yusuf Kabadayi hit wide in an attempt to replicate his late debut goal last time out before Steve Mounie’s stunning acrobatic effort was saved just as impressively by Robin Zentner.
There was a lengthy VAR review into a potential penalty for the hosts deep into stoppage time, but it was ultimately waved away. In seeing out the victory, Mainz extended their unbeaten away run to six matches, while Thorup will be disappointed that his side couldn’t profit from their personnel advantage whilst they had the opportunity.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jonathan Burkardt (Mainz)