Bundesliga
Silvan Widmer cancelled out Florian Neuhaus’s first-half strike to earn Mainz a point at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Mainz 1-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Goals: 0-1 Neuhaus 38’, 1-1 Widmer 76’
Bar an early header by Matthias Ginter from a Jonas Hofmann cross that he put wide, there were few clear-cut chances in the opening stages at the Mewa Arena. Germany U21 captain Jonathan Burkardt flicked on a cross that failed to find the target or a teammate before Gladbach lost Nico Elvedi to an ankle injury following an earlier collision with Karim Onisiwo. That brought on Neuhaus, who was followed not long after by Marcus Thuram in place of the also crocked Breel Embolo, who left the field walking but visibly upset. Mainz had looked comfortable until that point, but suddenly found themselves up against visitors who were growing in confidence and eventually took the lead. Ramy Bensebaini’s driven effort proved too hot for Robin Zentner to handle and Neuhaus was the quickest to react to tap into the empty net. It could’ve been more before the break, but Bensebaini planted his header from Hofmann’s delivery wide and then Thuram dragged an effort narrowly beyond the far post after twisting into space.
The 05ers re-emerged with real intent and had an effort with less than 60 seconds gone when a crisp Jae-Sung Lee strike from the edge of the box was tipped over the bar by a stretching Yann Sommer. Onisiwo and Burkardt then came close to combining as they have done in recent weeks, but the latter was just a yard away from turning in on the slide at the far post. Burkardt and Lee both had several other chances that were thwarted by Sommer as Mainz launched wave after wave of attacks. There were a couple of half chances for Alassane Plea at the other end, but the Foals struggled to apply any pressure with sustained periods of attacks against a relentless home team. The inevitable finally happened with a quarter of an hour remaining when Widmer took advantage of a ricochet in the box and curled an unstoppable effort in off the far post on his weaker left foot to earn the hosts what they will feel was a fully deserved point.
Watch: Silvan Widmer "proud" to score first Bundesliga goal
Mainz: Zentner - Bell, Hack, Niakhate (c) - Widmer, Lee (Stach 70‘), Kohr (Barreiro 89’), Boetius, Martin - Burkardt (Szalai 81’), Onisiwo (Ingvartsen 89’)
Unused subs: Dahmen, Brosinski, Nemeth, Lucoqui, Stöger
Out: St. Juste (shoulder)
Coach: Bo Svensson
Gladbach: Sommer (c) - Ginter, Elvedi (Neuhaus 28’), Bensebaini - Scally, Zakaria, Kone, Netz (Herrmann 79’) - Hofmann, Embolo (Thuram 30’), Plea (Stindl 79’)
Unused subs: Sippel, Wolf, Benes, Müsel, Bennetts
Out: Beyer (muscular), Doucoure (Achilles), Jantschke (facial fracture), Kramer (thigh), Lainer (ankle)
Coach: Adi Hütter
Watch: Gladbach's Joe Scally on his maiden USMNT call-up