BERLIN: Axel Witsel scored late to give Borussia Dortmund a bad-tempered 1-0 win at Mainz on Wednesday in their postponed Bundesliga game to cut the gap to leader Bayern Munich to four points.
American forward Gio Reyna, who came on in the 69th minute as a substitute, set up the winner by floating a free kick to the far post for Witsel to score in the 87th.
But the game itself had few highlights as it was punctuated by many fouls, niggles and disagreements. Dortmund midfielder Marius Wolf and Mainz counterpart Stefan Bell were booked before the break after a shoving match broke out at the culmination of increasingly frayed tempers.
There was another flare-up at the end when Jude Bellingham was fouled by Anderson Lucoqui, who was booked. Witsel was also booked in injury time, for a tactical foul, before Reyna drew a great save from Robin Zentner with another free kick.
The teams were originally down to play on March 6 but the game was called off due to a coronavirus outbreak at Mainz. Bo Svensson’s team also had their next game at Augsburg called off with at least 20 members of the squad and coaching staff infected with COVID-19. The Augsburg game was postponed to April 26.
The Mainz team showed no ill effects from the enforced break as they frustrated Dortmund’s attack and might have scored themselves with Jonathan Burkardt blocked by Emre Can in the best chance of the first half.
Dortmund coach Marco Rose brought Erling Haaland on for Wolf to energize his lackluster attack in the 57th, then Reyna and Julian Brandt.
Eight rounds remain.
Dortmund beat Mainz 1-0 to cut Bayern’s lead to 4 points
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Dortmund beat Mainz 1-0 to cut Bayern’s lead to 4 points
- American forward Gio Reyna set up the winner by floating a free kick
- The game itself had few highlights as it was punctuated by many fouls, niggles and disagreements
Liverpool’s Slot says football must do more after Vinicius racism allegation
- The Dutchman said Jeremie Frimpong is still out this weekend but fellow defender Joe Gomez is ready to start if needed
Liverpool manager Arne Slot says more needs to be done to avoid racism in football following allegations by Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr that he was subjected to racist abuse from Benfica’s Argentine winger Gianluca Prestianni.
Real’s 1-0 Champions League playoff first-leg win at Benfica on Tuesday was overshadowed by Vinicius accusing Prestianni of directing a racist slur at him, a charge denied by the Portuguese club, the player and their manager Jose Mourinho.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said it was reviewing the incident, which led to the game being halted for 11 minutes under FIFA’s anti-racism protocol.
“In general you can never do enough, you can always do more to make sure this (racism in football) never happens again,” Slot told reporters ahead of Liverpool’s Premier League visit to relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest on Sunday.
“We have to try as a football community to do more than society does. That’s maybe not so difficult, by the way. Protocol was followed in the game, that’s the first step,” he said on Thursday.
“I would hope my players would act in a similar way — immediately address it, and the referee acts in a similar way.”
Regarding the Forest game, Slot expects a different set-up under the Midlands club’s new manager Vitor Pereira compared to the meeting in November when Liverpool lost 3-0 at Anfield.
Former Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Pereira was appointed last Sunday to replace the sacked Sean Dyche.
“We only have tonight (Thursday) to see if this new manager changes personnel,” Slot said, referring to Forest’s first game under Pereira at Fenerbahce in a Europa League playoff tie.
“The good thing is they have that game, and the manager was in the Premier League last season.”
The Dutchman said Jeremie Frimpong is still out this weekend but fellow defender Joe Gomez is ready to start if needed.
Slot said his side have improved over the past few months, with Liverpool sixth in the table on 42 points from 26 games.
“We have improved compared to three, four months ago. We are in a much better place than months ago,” the 47-year-old added.
“There are more reasons, but the most simple two are how fit we are and that we’re much better at set-pieces at the moment.”
Forest are languishing in 17th spot, one place and three points above West Ham United in the relegation zone.
