Quick-fire Mainz down Wolfsburg

Mainz 3-0 VfL Wolfsburg 
Goals: 1-0 Burkardt 2' (assist: Barreiro), 2-0 Stach 4' (assist: Lee), 3-0 Lacroix o.g. 90'

Their above average shooting stats well sign posted ahead of this Matchday 14 encounter at the MEWA Arena, Mainz raced into the lead with the quickest goal of season to date. A little over 60 seconds on the clock, Leandro Barreiro superbly picked out the run of Jonathan Burkardt and the 21-year-old applied the perfect finish to take his 2021/22 top-flight tally to seven. Some frantic Wolfsburg defending quickly ensued, with the alert Joshua Guilavogui glancing out a Jae-sung Lee centre that came so close to landing at the feet of Silvan Widmer. Struggling to regroup, the Wolves found themselves 2-0 behind on four minutes, Anton Stach's speculative long-range effort palmed into the net by the diving Pavao Pervan.

The visitors - in new territory having never previously trailed by such a margin at that stage of a Bundesliga game - rang the changes at the break with Yannick Gerhardt, Kevin Mbabu and Sebastiaan Bornauw all thrown into the fray by coach Florian Kohfeldt. Swiss international Mbabu soon found himself right in the action, the defender seeing two shots blocked in quick succession. At the other end, Burkardt continued to menace as Mainz - looking comfortable with their lead - sought to pick off their tiring opponents on the counter. It was, however, an own goal that put the cherry on top of Mainz's first win in four games, Maxence Lacroix heading into his own net following a home set piece.

• Burkardt's 68th second opener was the Bundesliga's quickest goal so far this season.
• The Mainz forward has scored at least once in five of his last seven league matches, and four of five at home.
• Mainz's victory was their first at home to Wolfsburg since November 2015.
• Mainz had never before been 2-0 up after just 4 minutes. The last club in the Bundesliga to achieve this feat was RB Leipzig, two years ago in Paderborn
• Wolfsburg have won just one of their last eight away matches in all competitions (D2, L5).

Mainz: Zentner – Bell, Hack (Nemeth 86'), Niakhate (c) – Widmer, Barreiro, Lee (Boetius 83'), Stach, Martin – Burkardt (Ingvartsen 76'), Onisiwo (Szalai 83')
Unused subs: Dahmen, Brosinski, Stöger, Tauer, Nebel
Out: Kohr (thigh), Lucoqui (knee), St. Juste (shoulder)
Coach: Bo Svensson

Wolfsburg: Pervan – Lacroix, Guilavogui, Brooks (Bornauw 46') – Baku (Mbabu 46'), Vranckx (Philipp 81'), Arnold (c) (Gerhardt 46'), Otavio – Lukebakio (Waldschmidt 57'), Weghorst, L. Nmecha
Unsed subs: Klinger, Van de Ven, Steffen, Roussillon
Out: Bialek (knee), Casteels (match fitness), Mehmedi (muscular), Schlager (knee), William (knee)
Coach: Florian Kohfeldt