Borussia Dortmund host Mainz: first place against fifth place in the 2026 annual table | OneFootball

The scenario: The club in second place host the club at place fourteenth in the table. Mainz have climbed four places from last place with four wins out of their last five matches. Their 1-2 defeat at 1. FC Köln on matchday 18 was their only loss since the beginning of December (four wins, three draws).

Home/away: Borussia Dortmund have won eight of their ten matches so far at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK and are the only team that have yet to lose a game at home. Mainz have picked up five of their nine away points in their last four away games, most recently winning in Leipzig (2-1), drawing in Munich (1-1) and in Berlin (2-2).

Head-to-head: After a brief run of four matches without a win (two defeats, two draws) betweenMay 2023 and November 2024, Borussia Dortmund won the last two encounters, improving their overall record to 22 wins and ten draws with only seven losses. Mainz have won only 18 percent of their matches – even against Bayern Munich, Mainz have a higher win rate. Borussia Dortmund have never lost against Mainz after taking a 1-0 lead (18 wins, six draws).

Statistics: After a 3-3 draw in Frankfurt at the start of the year, Borussia Dortmund have won five consecutive Bundesliga matches and are top of the calendar year table. Mainz are in fifth place: The 05’ers have already earned significantly more points (13) since the winter break than before that period (eight) and, after three consecutive wins, they are now no longer one of the bottom three for the first time since matchday five (after the 0-2 defeat against Dortmund). After conceding 24 goals in the first 13 matches (no clean sheets), they have only conceded nine goals in eight games under new coach Urs Fischer. Since his arrival, Mainz have played the second most duels and are among the clubs with the strongest stamina.

Biggest home win: The 3-0 victory in BVB's first ever home game against Mainz 05 remains their highest win to this day: on 26 February, 2005, the Black & Yellows won comfortably 3-0 with goals from Ebi Smolarek, Jan Koller and Lars Ricken.

Last season: 81,365 spectators in the sold-out SIGNAL IDUNA PARK witnessed a BVB performance that was initially error-prone, but in the closing stages of the first half saw a brilliant goal by Maximilian Beier to make it 1-0 (39) and a beautiful header from Emre Can that was the 2-0 (42). Beier then scored the 3-0, 20 minutes before the final whistle. Paul Nebel scored one for Mainz shortly after that (76).Compiled by Boris Rupert