10th place instead of first: BVB rue poor finishing

Jonas Hofmann, who joined Mainz on loan from BVB only a few weeks ago, had fired a warning to Jürgen Klopp ahead of the game, telling the BVB coach, in the form of a text message, to “better be prepared”. And the Mainz side lived up to this warning and proved to be an awkward opponent. Kasper Hjulmand’s side were happy to let BVB have most of the possession (64 percent) but, unlike Arsenal on Tuesday, did very well to close down the space. “Our entire team defended very well,” said a pleased Mainz 05 coach after the game.

BVB were the better team for an hour and dominated proceedings, especially in the opening stages. “We played well for the first 20 to 30 minutes. We attacked well, covered a lot of ground and created some good chances, but were not clinical enough in front of goal,” said Erik Durm, while Mainz’s general manager Christian Heidel acknowledged, “We allowed ourselves to be dominated by BVB in the opening 15 minutes.”

Dortmund not only dominated possession, they also had more chances. Adrian Ramos alone could have scored two in the first half, both from promising positions, with the first, a header, going just wide (with a header) and the other hitting the outside of the post. His third chance on 53 minutes was another of the “many good moments” Jürgen Klopp talked about after the game – but none of them led to a goal.

“Adrian could have taken one of his chances, but unfortunately it was not to be,” said Klopp. The same can be said about second-half substitute Ciro Immobile. On Tuesday, the Italian scored against Arsenal following a 60m solo run, on Saturday he was denied from the spot by Loris Karius (70 mins.). It would have been the equaliser for the Black and Yellows after Shinji Okazaki had put the hosts in front four minutes earlier following a counter attack.

“Had the penalty gone in, the game might have taken a different course. But it would be foolish to blame a single player,” said Erik Durm, while Klopp explained, “I didn’t assign anyone to take the penalty. Ciro felt fine to take it and missed, but that was not the problem.” The Dortmund coach was more annoyed about his side’s defensive frailties in the final 30 minutes of the game: “We were too passive for the first goal and didn’t defend good enough overall.”

Klopp: “We were deserved losers“

Sven Bender, who started his first Bundesliga game since 22 February 2012, also blamed the catalogue of errors that led to Mainz’s first goal for the defeat. “To get caught on the counter from a set piece shouldn’t have happened to us. We really need to be more focused here. The goal turned the game on its head.”

To make matters worse, BVB conceded a second goal that basically put the game out of reach when Matthias Ginter tried to clear ahead of Jonas Hofmann but diverted the cross from Jairo into his own net. “Unfortunately, Mainz got their goals at the right times,” said Ginter, while Klopp summed up the game, saying: “The first goal, the missed penalty and an own goal – it all went wrong for us and therefore we were deserved losers.”

Mkhitaryan out of action

The Borussia Dortmund camp refused to use the game against Arsenal as a reason or an excuse for the defeat. “We are used to play three games a week,” said Matthias Ginter, a sentiment shared by Erik Durm who said, “We were still in good shape in the second half.” And Jürgen Klopp said, “We have never used the Champions League as an excuse. And we won’t use it today.” But he also acknowledged, “No pain, no gain. Some players still need to learn to deal with the strain.”

Sunday had more bad news in store for BVB as Henrikh Mkhitaryan suffered a tarsal bone injury to his right foot in the 2-0 defeat to Mainz ruling him out for four weeks. The Armenia international sustained the injury in the 90th minute when he came off worse in a block tackle with a Mainz defender when taking a shot – which, by the way, hit the post…