Leverkusen 1-0 Mainz: Grimaldo magic earns hosts 10th straight victory

Defending Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen edged out Mainz to win 1-0 in a tight encounter to earn their seventh straight league victory.

The victory came thanks to a brilliant free kick from Alex Grimaldo at the beginning of the second half and keeps Leverkusen second in the table, one point behind leaders Bayern Munich.

The visitors, meanwhile, are fifth in the table and trail Leverkusen by 10 points following the defeat.

In the game itself, Mainz had to recover from an early setback, with captain Jonathan Burkardt suffering an injury in the third minute on his comeback after having been injured at the weekend.

Despite that, Mainz held on to keep things goalless at half-time. But just three minutes into the second period, Grimaldo settled things with a moment of real quality.

The Brazilian curled his free kick over the wall and past the helpless Robin Zentner in the Mainz goal.

Following the victory, Xabi Alonso's side are on 38 points from 17 matches, with Bayern Munich's game in hand coming against Hoffenheim on Wednesday.

3 - Bayer 04 Leverkusen's Alex Grimaldo scored his third direct free-kick goal in the Bundesliga. No other player in the big five European leagues has scored as many such goals since the start of the 2023-24 season. Precision. pic.twitter.com/Z1TfqqEVvJ

— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) January 14, 2025

Data debrief: Leverkusen keep marching on

Leverkusen's run of form is beginning to look ominous, with this victory their 10th in a row in all competitions.

During that sequence, Alonso's side have kept five clean sheets and also beaten Bayern Munich in the DFB-Pokal and Borussia Dortmund in the league.

Here, they were comfortable, restricting their opposition to just 0.72 xG compared to their 1.76.