Borussia Dortmund dent Mainz’s Champions League ambitions

Mainz 05 lost in the Bundesliga for the first time since January, slipping to a 3-1 defeat away at Borussia Dortmund. But it was a low-quality affair in which neither team really impressed.

“3-1 – but I’m not sure to whom,” said the mother on the Dortmund subway pre-match when asked for a score prediction by her young son.

She nailed it and, happily for that particular family, it went Borussia Dortmund’s way, too, as goals from Maxi Beier and Emre Can (two of them headers from Nico Schlotterbeck corners, bizarrely) saw off high-flying Mainz 05.

Not that it looked like we’d be seeing four goals after a first half accurately described by the Sebastian Weßling, chief sports reporter of the local Funke media group, as “ein fürchterlicher Kick” – an awful game.