He causes a penalty and his mistake leads to the 1:3 – Silvan Widmer returns from Dortmund with Mainz frustrated and empty-handed
At 28, with two international caps and 25 caps, Widmer has plenty of experience, but the defensive veteran has rarely played in front of a crowd of over 60,000. The early lead gave BVB additional momentum in front of their own crowd. Mainz 05 needed quite a while to free themselves from the pressure and to create their own scoring chances. By the time the goal was scored, it was already late in the game.
“There was too little belief on our part in the first half. We have to believe more in our qualities, then we can also pose problems for big teams. We did that better in phases in the second half, but we have to do better over the whole game,” Widmer summed up. For Mainz, it is the third defeat in a row. FSV lost the same number of games in the 20 matches before the current losing streak.
Handball penalty upsets Svensson
Widmer was directly involved in conceding goals two and three. The 0:2 resulted from a handball penalty by Erling Haaland, which was caused by the Mainz number 30. At least that was the opinion of the referee Daniel Schlager after viewing the TV pictures. Initially, Schlager had let play go, but in the images from the back goal camera he then saw Widmer’s arm go towards the ball. “It can’t have been an intentional movement because I didn’t see where the ball was going. You don’t have to give it,” Widmer said. Coach Bo Svensson got so upset about Schlager’s decision that he was cautioned. Later he “didn’t want to comment on the scene, but I was right to get the yellow card”.
Haaland did not miss the penalty chance and was also on hand in injury time for the 3:1 when he was set up by Jude Bellingham. Bellingham had won the ball in a one-on-one with Widmer. “The third goal I conceded was my own fault. I didn’t want to shoot the ball away blindly, I looked for a solution but didn’t find one. It was the wrong decision,” said the Mainz player. Thus, the chance to take home a point from Dortmund after Jonathan Burkardt’s 1:2 in the 87th minute had quickly vanished into thin air.
