Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan guided Borussia Dortmund back onto the path of victory on Friday evening. The Germany international and Armenian scored the two goals during the 2-0 away win against 1. FSV Mainz 05, with their side having failed to win in their previous three Bundesliga matches. Among those results included their 5-1 drubbing away to Bayern München before the international break.
Thomas Tuchel, who returned to his old club on the night, led his team to their sixth win of the season as they consolidated second spot in the league with 20 points, four behind leaders Bayern and four ahead of local rivals Schalke 04. It was a fifth defeat of the season for Mainz, who find themselves in the top half of the table with 12 points. Dortmund’s on-form striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang failed to find the net for the first time this season, though he played a vital role in both goals.
Tuchel: "Three points were crucially important"
"The three points were crucially important. I know who difficult it is to win in Mainz,” said Tuchel after the match. “We were a little shaky at times, but that means nothing. Everyone saw that we drew three and took a beating in Munich. I expected that sort of performance; you can’t just expect everything things to go so swimmingly. But I am extremely happy that my team managed to do that today.”
It was a lively game from the start, as both sides sought to attack the goal as quickly as possible. The hosts threw caution to the wind, having the games first chance in the sixth minute. Pierre Bengtsson crossed in from the left for Yoshinori Muto, whose close-range effort was saved by Roman Bürki.
Borussia soon established themselves as the technically dominant side. Reus, who was not in the starting XI against Bayern, rounded off an exceptional counter to give the former champions the lead. After a wayward pass from defender Niko Bungert, Mkhitaryan initiated a swift attack, feeding Aubameyang on the edge, who then took a touch and played Reus through in the box to finish from close range.
Karius saves Reus penalty
Despite their carelessness in possession, Mainz continued to press on the Dortmund goal. The club’s leading scorer for the campaign, Yunus Malli fired just wide moments after Reus’ goal, before Jairo’s free kick was tipped on to the crossbar by Bürki. Indeed, it was the hosts who had the most chances in the first half, though it was Dortmund who went into the break with the one goal cushion.
Within seconds of the restart, Tuchel’s side had the opportunity to put the hosts out of sight, but Reus was denied from the penalty spot by Mainz keeper Loris Karius. The Zerofivers were unable to cause any real threat on the BVB goal after that and the away side eventually found the winning goal late on. Aubameyang pounced on another defensive error, before unselfishly squaring it to Mkhitaryan to make it 2-0 with just eight minutes left on the clock.