Mainz 05 vs RB Leipzig

Mainz 05 and RB Leipzig go head-to-head at the Mewa Arena in a potentially high-scoring Bundesliga affair. Indeed, each of their ten top-flight H2Hs so far has featured over 2.5 total goals.

Despite spending most of last season in the relegation territory, Mainz eventually claimed a 12th-place finish, meaning they’ve wandered between the 12th and 15th place five years in a row. An upturn in form since early March saw Mainz go unbeaten in ten of their closing 11 Bundesliga fixtures in 2020/21 (W6, D4) to avoid relegation. Well used to tight, keenly-contested affairs, ‘Die Nullfünfer’ prevailed by a single-goal margin in all six wins in that sequence. Interestingly, four out of Mainz’s last five top-flight victories have seen them being pegged back before netting the winner, indicating vast defensive problems. The hosts have, in fact, kept just four clean sheets in 20 Bundesliga matches in 2021, failing to do so in the last five on the spin.

In the meantime, Leipzig finished the 2020/21 Bundesliga campaign as the only team to concede under 1.00 goals per match on average (0.94), but they have some defensive woes to address this time around. With the long-serving centre-half duo, Dayot Upamecano and Ibrahima Konaté, departed for high-profile moves to Bayern Munich and Liverpool, respectively, maintaining the same defensive consistency won’t be a simple task. Moreover, Julian Naglesmann left the dugout after a two-year stint to move to Bayern, with Jesse Marsch taking over the reins in what will be his first job in Europe’s top-five divisions. That, coupled with a return of one clean sheet from their last five Bundesliga openers, indicates the shutout theme may not be on the cards.