After a relatively quiet opening 20 minutes, the first half came to life when Leverkusen were awarded a penalty after Anton Stach caught Sardar Azmoun in the air, however Edmond Tapsoba’s spot kick was saved low down to his right by Finn Dahmen. Having spurned a great opportunity to take the lead, the hosts found themselves behind a matter of minutes later when defender Odilon Kossounou completely mistimed his clearing kick and the ball fell to Anthony Caci, who fired home to give Mainz the lead with his first goal since September.
Having benefited from a defensive mistake, the visitors then made one of their own as they failed to deal with a ball upfield which allowed Azmoun to break free, before squaring to Nadiem Amiri who spun and shot past Dahmen to draw Leverkusen level. Both teams will have been content to go into HT level, however a dramatic finale to the first half ensued as Mainz took the lead for the second time when a ball into the area was headed into the path of Leandro Barreiro, who arrived to fire it home from close range. The Nullfünfer were then awarded a penalty of their own, which was ruled out when the VAR spotted a foul in the build-up.
Keen to preserve their strong home record in this fixture, Xabi Alonso’s side came out with purpose after the interval and, with the hour mark approaching, they found the equaliser when Patrik Schick hit the back of the net at the third time of asking after after a blocked effort and a post rattler to make it 2-2.
All of the momentum was with the home team in the closing stages, however the Werkself fans were stunned when Mainz were awarded a penalty after Amine Adli brought down Kerem Demirbay. Ingvartsen cooly converted to clinch a dramatic victory which sees Mainz leapfrog Leverkusen into ninth place.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Finn Dahmen (FSV Mainz 05)
