We take on Mainz today at home in our 6th to last game of the season. After last weeks embarrassing loss to Bayern Munich, Dortmund need a good win to bring spirits back. BVB are still only 1 point behind Bayern so the title is still in play. Piszczek has been ruled out and Pulisic is doubtful. In our last outing vs Mainz we won 2-1, with goals from Paco and Piz. For our lineup we need to play it safe. Weigl needs to slot back into the backline, hopefully along Akanji. At the moment they are our best pair. Diallo and Zags both have been struggling, but we will probably need to play on of them at fullback, preferably Diallo. Wolf can slot if fine as the other fullback. If we go two men in the central midfield Witsel-Delaney is our best bet. Mo still has the potential to be a great player but with the title so close and so few games left, Delaney needs to start over him whenever applicable. If it is two CMs, Reus should play in front of them with Paco in front of him. Dortmund could really use some Paco magic today. Raph and Sancho are our best bets on the wings. Mainz have lost all but two games since January. If 05 sit back against us today they will be hard to break down, and they do have some quality in their counter. Despite a rough two months Florian Muller is the exact kind of keeper that can frustrate us if he plays at the top of his game. The biggest threat 05 has is Robin Quaison, who scored against us last time around. In addition to Quaison, Jean-Philippe Mateta has the most goals this year for Mainz, with 10. Expect both of them to start today looking for crosses and through balls from Jean-Philippe Gbamin and Jean-Paul Boëtius. Lots of Jean’s on this team. Dortmund keys to victory are simple. 1. Dont play a bad first 10 minutes like they have been doing most of the year. 2. Play through Axel Witsel and Marco Reus. Reus especially has not been given the chance to successes by both Favre’s lineups and his teammates form the past few games. Lets go BVB!! !<doc-sep>DORTMUND, GERMANY - APRIL 13: Jadon Sancho of Borussia Dortmund celebrates after scoring his team's first goal with team mates during the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and 1. FSV Mainz 05 at Signal Iduna Park on April 13, 2019 in Dortmund, Germany. (Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images) Borussia Dortmund scraped by Mainz in a 2-1 win to pick up a vital 3 points in the Bundesliga title race. Borussia Dortmund started the game against Mainz firing on all cylinders, piling on the pressure early in the game. Jacob Bruun Larsen had two early chances to give Dortmund the lead, the first was off a great ball from Mario Gotze after a quick corner. It was tough to see if it was off Bruun Larsen or the Mainz defender but either way it went off the far post, staying out. The second was off an exquisite through ball in the air from Jadon Sancho. The Mainz keeper was able to pull off an exceptional save in tight with next to no reaction time to keep the ball out. It was Jadon Sancho who struck once and then again to put Dortmund up 1-0 and 2-0 in the span of 6 minutes. Sancho’s first goal was a thing of beauty from start to finish. The play started with Marius Wolf in Dortmund’s own end playing an exceptional long ball just over the Mainz defense right onto the chest of Mario Gotze in full stride. All it took was one touch from Gotze and then he chipped the ball across the 18 yard box right onto the foot of Jadon Sancho to fire home. Sancho’s second goal was also a nice team goal. Mario Gotze found Thomas Delaney in full speed who took it wide along the side of the 18 yard box before squaring it past 3 Mainz defenders right onto Sancho’s foot. Dortmund remained in control for the rest of the first half, Bruun Larsen had another chance that he missed wide on the far side. Mainz did have one dangerous opportunity hitting the post on a ball in tight that Burki wouldn’t have had a chance to stop. The second half was a completely different story, Mainz came out right away and Dortmund were flat. Dortmund lost all of their dominance after the break as Mainz controlled the play and piled on more and more pressure as the game wore on. Dortmund were lucky to last until the 83rd minute before conceding as Mainz had multiple chances to get on the board before then. After scoring to make it 2-1 Dortmund just turtled. Right before the goal, Favre brought on Dan-Axel Zagadou for Marius Wolf and then after the goal Favre brought on another defender in Toprak to try and see out the game. These subs all but ensured Mainz would get chance after chance as Dortmund sat back and prayed they didn’t concede again. The only reason Dortmund escaped with all 3 points was Roman Burki who absolutely stood on his head in the second half. In the 87th minute he made an insane triple save with all 3 shots coming from inside the 6 yard box. Somehow Burki kept the ball from crossing the line, ensuring the 3 points were secured. Next up for Borussia Dortmund is a trip to SC Freiburg as they aim to keep up with Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga title race.<doc-sep>BERLIN — Jadon Sancho scored twice for Borussia Dortmund to return to the top of the Bundesliga with a nervy 2-1 win over Mainz on Saturday. The 19-year-old England forward helped Dortmund get over its 5-0 drubbing at Bayern Munich the week before as it reclaimed the lead by two points from the six-time defending champion. But Dortmund was hanging on at the end after Robin Quaison pulled one back in the 84th minute and Roman Buerki made three successive saves from Ridle Baku, only stopping the ball on the line. Bayern can retake the lead again Sunday with a win at promoted Fortuna Duesseldorf, which grabbed a 3-3 draw in Munich earlier in the season. "If we win all six games, then Dortmund can do what it wants," Bayern coach Niko Kovac said. Mario Goetze returned for Dortmund after starting on the bench in Munich last Saturday, and the World Cup winner made an immediate impact as he set up Sancho to open the scoring in the 17th minute. Goetze was involved again seven minutes later as he sent Thomas Delaney through to set up Sancho, who scored his 10th Bundesliga goal of the season with a defected shot. Dortmund was producing a spectacle of attacking football but Mainz improved late in the first half when Karim Onisiwo struck the post. After the break, Onisiwo again hit the post and the home fans’ frustration grew as their side looked increasingly nervous. Marco Reus should have sealed it late – after being set up by Sancho – but the Dortmund captain scuffed his shot when he only had the goalkeeper to beat. EUROPE BECKONING Leipzig closed in on Champions League qualification and Werder Bremen boosted its hopes of European soccer with wins earlier Saturday. Leipzig consolidated third place after stretching its unbeaten league run to 11 games with a 2-0 win over Wolfsburg. Two late goals from Davy Klaassen and Theodor Gebre Selassie gave Bremen a 2-1 win at home over Freiburg. Bremen remains unbeaten in 2019 — six wins and six draws in the Bundesliga, two German Cup wins over Dortmund and Schalke — and climbed to sixth, the last qualification place for the Europa League with five rounds remaining. LEVERKUSEN RELIEF Seventh-placed Bayer Leverkusen is just one point behind Bremen after ending a run of three defeats with a 1-0 win at Stuttgart, thanks to Kai Havertz’s second-half penalty. Stuttgart’s Santiago Ascacibar was sent off after apparently spitting at Havertz in injury time. The Argentine could face a lengthy ban after pushing referee Tobias Stieler when he was shown the red card. Fifth-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach won 1-0 at bottom side Hannover. Lars Stindl’s return to Hannover quickly ended after a collision with Matthias Ostrzolek in the first minute. The Gladbach captain had to be helped off the field in the fifth minute before he was taken to the hospital.<doc-sep>
Dortmund won 2-1 against Mainz today rising to the top of the Bundesliga table. After a bad loss last week Dortmund really needed to bounce back. While the second half of this game was rough a win is a win. The Dortmund goals were both from Sancho with Gotze and Delaney assists respectively. The Mainz goal was from Jean Quaison. The first half went great for BVB. we dominated the entire first 45 minutes. We kept over 70% possession from Mainz and had our fair share of chances. The first goal came from a Wolf long cross to Gotze, who then served it up for Sancho to finish nicely. Five minutes later Gotze got the ball to Delaney who laid it off to the Sancho to complete his brace. We had some more chances in the first half, with Gotze noticeably making some big passes, but the 2-0 scoreline stuck at 45’. The second half was quite embarrassing for BVB. After a good 15 minute stretch to start the half, Dortmund gave up most possession to Mainz. From 60 on it was all Dortmund bunkering down and letting Mainz do what they please. Burki had some nutty saves in this stretch, although I am sure he would not have wanted to be put in this situation to start with. It did not help Favre really didn’t have any good options for subs either. He ended up putting on Phillip, Zagadou and Toprak for JBL,Wolf and Gotze throughout the half. The Mainz goal was just silly season from Dortmunds backline as they let Quaison make his run and take his shot with ease. After 10 more minutes of bunkering and some really close chances, including a triple save from Burki, Dortmund managed to limp away with the win. Overall this game was not great for BVB. we are still plagued by chaos when the opposing team gets into a rhythm. If we are to fight Bayern down this stretch we need to kill games and not let setbacks end our game plan. Due to his second half heroics, I’d say Burki was our MOTM. What did you think of the game?