The facts on the home game against Mainz 05 | OneFootball

The scenario: Eleventh versus third. The Zero-Fivers are eight places and 10 points ahead of BVB and could finish the Bundesliga season above Dortmund for the first time in their 19th top-flight campaign. The last time BVB went into a head-to-head behind Mainz (then 16th vs. 13th) was 10 years ago – in February 2025. After 15 rounds of matches, the two teams went into the winter break level on points in fifth and sixth places. While the Zero-Fivers have taken 20 points from their 11 games this year, BVB have managed only 10.

Home/away: The Black & Yellows have won only one of their last seven home games (6-0 against Union Berlin on 22 February) and have dropped down from first place in the home table, which they occupied until matchday 17, to fifth. With three consecutive wins on the road recently, the men from Rhenish-Hesse are now the third-best away team (seven wins, two draws and four defeats) and have already amassed almost twice as many away points (23) as in the entirety of last season (12).

Head-to-head record: Borussia are winless in four matches against Mainz (two draws, two defeats). They have only had such a long negative run in this pairing once before: six games between autumn 2005 and autumn 2010. Overall, BVB have lost only seven of their 37 Bundesliga meetings (19%) – even against Bayern, the Zero-Fivers have won a higher proportion of their games. On average, Borussia Dortmund have conceded only one goal per game against 1. FSV Mainz 05 (38 in 37 games).

Statistics: Borussia have 15 points fewer on the board than they did a year ago (50), have lost more matches (11) than they have won (10), and have not scored a goal in their last two matches. Mainz, meanwhile, are unbeaten in six rounds of matches. Only Bayern Munich (19 wins) and Bayer Leverkusen (16) have racked up more victories this season than Mainz (13 wins).

Biggest home win: The 3-0 victory in BVB's first-ever home game against Mainz 05 is their biggest to date: on 26 February 2005, the Black & Yellows won 3-0 thanks to goals from Ebi Smolarek, Jan Koller and Lars Ricken.

Last season: Five days before Christmas Eve 2023, 80,350 spectators packed into SIGNAL IDUNA PARK to witness an attacking and lively first-half performance from BVB. Julian Brandt deservedly opened the scoring (29) and Jamie Gittens and Marcel Sabitzer hit the crossbar, but Mainz player van den Berg restored parity with the visitors' second chance (43). The Black & Yellows subsequently created almost nothing. From a BVB perspective, the shot count for the second half stood at 7-8 (14-3 before the break). Giovanni Reyna's goal in the 90th minute was disallowed for offside.Compiled by Boris Rupert