Narrow defeat in friendly against Darmstadt

Mainz 05 were beaten 1-0 at the Bruchwegstadion by SV Darmstadt 98 on Wednesday afternoon. Kai Klefisch got the only goal of the game for the Bundesliga 2 side in the 70th minute. New signing Moritz Jenz captained Mainz in his first game for the club.

“We didn’t get the ball in behind as often as we should have and just basically knocked it about among ourselves. We won’t score any goals if we don’t take any risks,” said head coach Bo Henriksen after the game. “Games like that aren’t nice to watch, but they’re part of football and we’ll work on it,” he added. His starting XI began the game at a leisurely pace as they looked to find gaps in the Darmstadt defence, which they failed to do early on. The away team struggled to get into Mainz’s half at all after failing to make anything of turnovers in possession. 

Darmstadt upped the ante as the first half went on and spent more time in the final third, though, like their opponents, were lacking a cutting edge in this part of the pitch. This meant that a large part of the first half an hour was played in the middle of the park and both teams failed to punish their opposition for losing the ball. The hosts first came close after 35 minutes: Tim Müller’s deflected strike from close range just missed the target. Two minutes later, Darmstadt’s Merveille Papela, who joined them from FSV this summer, headed a corner over the bar (37’). Nothing more of note happened in the first half.

The second half began brightly from a Mainz perspective: Karim Onisiwo’s effort from a central position narrowly flew past the post (51’). Daniel Gleiber hammered a ball into the six-yard area, though no 05er could get on the end of it (56’). The Lilies’ first decent opportunity after the break came via Fynn Lakenmacher, but the striker couldn’t properly connect from close range and it was easy for Lasse Rieß (65’). A good move ended in a simple finish for Klefisch and he opened the scoring after 70 minutes. Mainz’s reaction followed in the form of Ayman Barkok’s shot, which drifted past the post (72’).

Mainz did their best to equalise after conceding, albeit without any success. Darmstadt actually remained the more dangerous side and could have added a second goal too. Luca Marseiler saw his shot well saved by Rieß with eight minutes to go. There were no further chances and it thus ended 1-0 to the visitors.

MAINZ 05 - DARMSTADT 98 0-1

Starting XI (number): Lasse Finn Rieß (1), Moritz Jenz (3), Ayman Barkok (4), Maxim Leitsch (5), Kaishu Sano (6), Karim Onisiwo (9), Hyunseok Hong (14), Danny Vieira Da Costa (21), Daniel Gleiber (39), Jason Amann (41), Tim Müller (45)

Subistutions: 46’ Jusuf Ugljanin for Tim Müller, 46’ Philipp Schulz for Maxim Leitsch, 46’ Justus Götze for Kaishu Sano, 60’ Lovis Bierschenk for Hyunseok Hong, 60’ Tim Müller for Moritz Jenz