17th matchday
No winner at the start of the year: Mainz with a draw against Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg’s Jonas Wind (l) shields the ball from Mainz’s Edmilson Fernandes. photo
© Torsten Silz/dpa
Seventh game in a row without a win: After the draw against Wolfsburg, Mainz coach Siewert’s record is mixed. He has just been promoted to boss.
In front of 24,000 spectators, Wolfsburg’s winger Vaclav Cerny (12th minute) gave the guests the lead. Captain Silvan Widmer (61st) at least secured a point for Mainz, who were in danger of relegation.
The Rheinhessen have eleven points and are looking forward to a difficult second half of the season. Jan Siewert was promoted to head coach during the winter break and given a contract until 2026. Since the exciting opening win over RB Leipzig – which was still an interim solution at the time – the 41-year-old has not been able to celebrate another win in seven Bundesliga games. During this period there were only three own goals. Wolfsburg is stuck in midfield and is in danger of losing touch with the European ranks.
Minute of silence for Beckenbauer
After the minute’s silence for Franz Beckenbauer, who died last Sunday, the game began with some tough duels and few notable actions. The first successful attack immediately gave Wolfsburg the lead: After a pass from Lovro Majer, Cerny appeared on the right wing, let a defender out and finished dryly into the near corner.
The Mainz attempts, on the other hand, remained imprecise and harmless. When Wolfsburg’s goalkeeper Koen Casteels easily deflected a shot from Phillipp Mwene (18th) towards a corner, he had already secured a record. Casteels remained without conceding a goal for more than 700 minutes against Mainz 05 – until the 1-1 draw in the second half – and thus surpassed the previous record set by Manuel Neuer against Eintracht Frankfurt between 2011 and 2016. It was the most minutes played by a Bundesliga goalkeeper against a specific opponent. The Belgian Casteels wasn’t challenged further until half-time.
Balance from nothing
Wolfsburg did the bare minimum. That wasn’t much given the freezing temperatures and the hosts’ noticeably reserved behavior. Majer (42nd) shot clearly over the goal, striker Jonas Wind approached harmlessly (44th). Jakub Kaminski (45th + 2) hit one too many points on the way to a possible second goal and was stopped by returnee Robin Zentner with a clean tackle.
The first 15 minutes after the break were also slow. The Mainz equalizer came almost out of nowhere: Captain Widmer curiously scored with the outside of his foot after an assist from the busy Mwene. It was the Swiss’s first Bundesliga goal in almost a year. Shortly before the 1-1 draw, the home fans had started to express their displeasure. Despite the lack of highlights, the game remained exciting until the end. A winning goal was not scored because Zentner brilliantly parried a header from Sebastiaan Bornauw after a corner (87′).