Thursday’s action witnessed the best and worst of Bayer Leverkusen, with a 3-2 UEFA Europa League home defeat to Monaco seeing a goalkeeping howler from Lukáš Hrádecký, a fightback and then a late capitulation. Though they now face an early exit from European competition, Xabi Alonso’s men remain hopeful of a sixth successive top-six Bundesliga finish after a 3-1 victory over Hoffenheim last weekend.
At first glance, the defensive failings of Thursday suggest that a fifth clean-sheet win in six H2H home clashes with visitors Mainz isn’t on the cards. However, Leverkusen are unbeaten across three prior occasions where a home game has followed midweek European action this term (W2, D1), with both wins coming by at least a four-goal margin to-nil!
While the overall H2H history doesn’t favour Mainz (W11, D5, L18), they’ll have plenty of reasons to play with confidence. A 3-1 victory over Augsburg last weekend further consolidated their sense of security in mid-table, and they could now leapfrog Leverkusen into the top-eight with a first victory at the BayArena since February 2017.
Two goals inside the opening 11 minutes settled it that time, but a return of five losses across their previous seven Bundesliga road trips (W1, D1) makes such a strong start seem unlikely. In fact, the 05ers last managed an away league goal inside the first half-hour back on August 6, while the previous 11 Bundesliga trips to see them concede in the same period have all ended in defeat.
Players to watch: Jeremie Frimpong assisted Leverkusen’s first goal in midweek and bagged a brace in the space of just three minutes during August’s reverse clash (W 3-0). In hot form for the visitors, Lee Jae-sung registered a double of his own during Mainz’s recent win over Augsburg, while both of his prior away goals this term have rounded off the scoring in victories.
Hot streak: Leverkusen have kept a first-half clean sheet in each of the last seven H2Hs.
