Becker brilliance guides Mainz to five-star thrashing of Hamburger SV | OneFootball

Hamburger SV's lacklustre start to the new Bundesliga season continued this afternoon on home soil. In the Hanseatic sun, an FSV Mainz 05 side inspired by the brilliance of Sheraldo Becker and Phillip Tietz ran out comfortable winners on a 5-0 scoreline.

Similar to their opening day struggles in Dortmund, the hosts seemed to struggle as Mainz piled on the pressure. Sheraldo Becker stung the palms of Daniel Heuer Fernandes, before Nadiem Amiri fired wide on the end of a neat set-piece routine inside 15 minutes.

The warning signs were clear and HSV took no heed of it as an atmospheric Volksparkstadion fell momentarily silent. A misplaced pass from skipper Nicolai Remberg was picked off by Kaishu Sano. From there, he played in Becker who dispatched from a one-on-one scenario.

Aside from the occasional threat of Albert Grønbaek, HSV failed to even test debutante Alexander Schwolow before the break. Mainz swiftly led 2-0 when Nadiem Amiri pulled the strings in midfield for Becker to find space and deliver a routine tap-in for Philipp Mwene.

Half-time whistles from supporters forced Merlin Polzin's hand at the break. Torunarigha, Nadir and Adeline departed for Shafiq Nandja, Patson Daka and Fábio Vieira. The latter receiving a massive cheer since returning on a permanent basis from Arsenal.

One would have imagined HSV might click into gear, but instead they conceded a third inside 3 minutes of the restart. Caci set Becker free on the right, enabling the Surinamese forward to collect his second assists as Phillip Tietz flicked in from his run to the front post.

The afternoon darkened further for the hosts when summer signing Terem Moffi limped off. With 25 minutes remaining, Mainz were in total control. Tietz piled on more misery when his shot squeezed through Heuer Fernandes' gloves who didn't cover himself in glory. 

In Merlin Polzin's heaviest home defeat during his tenure, former striker Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer made it 5-0 in stoppage time. There was a sense of poetic justice for the 24-year-old who didn't hold back in his celebrations to complete Mainz's five-star show.