Kenley Ward
Dailysports's expert
Mainz 05
Borussia Moenchengladbach
On February 24, Mewa Arena (Mainz) will host the match of the 22nd round of the German Bundesliga, in which Mainz will compete with Borussia (Mönchengladbach). The battle will start at 20:30 CET.
Mainz
The team spends this season much weaker than the previous one. Then, in 2021/2022, there were even real efforts to qualify, even if everything ended in the 8th place, for European competition. Nowadays, Bo Svensson’s wards rolled back to the bottom of the standings. As a rule, they had more defeats than victories, and the goal difference was negative. Still, the previous home match brought a quite confident success in the battle against the opponent of the same class, Augsburg, – 3-1. And last Sunday, the club went to Bayer in Leverkusen. The team won there with a 3-2 score, which is pretty sensational if we do not take into account the numerous problems of the “the Pharmacists”.
Borussia Mönchengladbach
The club spent a couple of not the best seasons. As a result, the management called Daniel Farke in the previous summer in order to ensure the recapture of lost positions. In the autumn, the ex-mentor of Norwich and a bit of Krasnodar had some success, although even then there were enough misfires – the defeat made Darmstadt, which resulted in relegation from the DFB Pokal. In January, the club could not keep its No. 1, Sommer, who was lured to Bayern. It goes without saying that the higher mentioned fact is not the only one to affect, but the results of “the Foals” after a pause are not impressive. They beat only crisis Hoffenheim – even Schalke was able to survive and to achieve a goalless draw. Bayer and even Augsburg defeated the team, and Hertha completely destroyed it with a 1-4 score. Thus, there was no hope in the following battle with Bayern, except for the history of head-to-head matches in the times of Nagelsmann. Nevertheless, the champion was beaten again, this time with a 3-2 score.
The statistics of head-to-head matches
Mainz has not lost for 4 head-to-head matches in a row, including the 1-0 victory at the arena of Borussia in the early autumn.
Predictions
Bookmakers consider Mainz, which will play at home arena, to be the favourite of the match. At the same time, Borussia has finally reached good shape. We bet on “total: over 2.5” (odd: 1.7).
