1. FSV Mainz 05 looks like the winner against 1. FC Köln for a long time. In a wild final phase, the 05ers still lost two points. A referee’s decision causes Robin Zentner to be unhappy.
With the 1:1 (1:0) against 1. FC Köln, the Rheinhessen missed another big step towards staying in the league. Bo Henriksen’s team has now been unbeaten in six Bundesliga games, with three wins and three draws since the beginning of March.
Mainz are now in 16th place with 28 points, two points behind Union Berlin and VfL Bochum. 1. FC Köln has one foot in the second division with five points less.
Leandro Barreiro gave Mainz the lead in the 29th minute. Nadiem Amiri served Karim Onisiwo with an opening ball. Cologne goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe was only able to high-five the Austrian’s powerful shot. Barreiro ran through and scored to make it 1-0.
Mainz concedes Cologne’s equalizer from the point
The fact that it wasn’t enough to win against Cologne was due, on the one hand, to Mainz’s weak performance in the second half and, on the other hand, to the stormy Cologne team at the end of the encounter. In a wild final phase, Florian Kainz equalized with a penalty kick (90+5). Previously, keeper Zentner had cleared a cross from Cologne’s Sargis Adamyan, who had been on the ball before Zentner. Referee Benjamin Brand pointed to the spot and stuck to his decision even after looking at the pictures.
The decision was understandable, but Zentner saw it differently. “For me it’s not a foul. It’s an aerial duel. He heads the ball first, I then head it out decisively,” said Zentner in the Sportschau interview. “They both go into the body, he into mine, I into his. That’s not a penalty for me.”
Zentner is annoyed about the red card
To make matters worse for Mainz, Philipp Mwene was shown a red card in stoppage time after a foul on Mark Uth – a decision that was clearly too harsh and infuriated Zentner. “I can’t think of anything about that. That’s never a red card,” said the goalkeeper. The fact that Brand wasn’t asked by VAR to look at the scene again caused Zentner to shake his head: “There’s a referee sitting there somewhere and doesn’t say anything.”
For coach Henriksen, the decision was “a catastrophe, a scandal.” The fact is: The Austrian will initially be missing from the 05ers in the relegation battle. Just like Brajan Gruda and Nadiem Amiri, who each saw their fifth yellow card. In addition, Onisiwo had to be replaced with a suspected broken finger. A diagnosis is still pending.
Mainz 05 has to go to Heidenheim
However, the Mainz team did not accept that the blame should only be placed on the referee. “We had the chance to score the goals beforehand, especially in the first half,” said Zentner. “Everyone knows that in football you have to be there until the last second. It’s extremely bitter to get the equalizer so late.”
Teammate Jonathan Burkardt classified the game in a very similar way. The attacker especially didn’t like the performance in the second half. “We didn’t push out well anymore, we didn’t start well anymore and were often outnumbered at the front. Maybe we wanted to manage it too much,” said Burkardt. “If it had worked, we would be standing here now and saying we defended cleverly. But that’s not our way of putting ourselves at the back and hoping we don’t concede a goal. I didn’t like that.”
On the next match day, the 05ers travel to the strong newcomers from Heidenheim. “That’s a plan. But we’ve been unbeaten for a long time and can go out with self-confidence. It feels like shit now, but tomorrow we’ll go into the new week with our heads held high,” Burkardt said, looking ahead again.