Nowhere has Bayern Munich head coach Thomas Tuchel enjoyed a longer tenure than at Mainz 05. His first senior team managerial stint lasted from August 2009 to May 2014, a period of 184 league games.
Seven games into his Bavarian adventure, his old club — now led by Bo Svensson — handed Tuchel and Bayern a heaping of humble pie. FCBayern.com gathered the joyous reactions from the victors.
“Huge props to the team for their performance and Bo Svensson’s coaching team,” gushed Mainz sporting director Martin Schmidt. “It’s unbelievable what they’re doing this year. The fans played a massive role. The atmosphere propelled the team in the second half. At some point, you believed, not just hoped.”
“We threw ourselves into the challenges and made it hard for Bayern to play out from the back,” added Leandro Barreiro, who scored his side’s second goal and sent them into the lead. “We asserted ourselves in attack and created chances. We turned the screw in the second half and deserved to win.”
Turning the screw — that’s something Bayern themselves are more accustomed to doing, but so far under Tuchel, they’ve frequently failed to find that killer edge. It’s a pattern hardly new in this season, too, and the lack of finishing blows is inviting opponents back into games again and again and again.
Against Mainz, Bayern sprung the early lead but once more yielded the stage to their more confident and composed challengers.
“The first half was extremely difficult. We were lucky to go in only 1-0 down at the break,” Svensson said. “We improved in the second half. After the equaliser, you could sense that the belief, the energy, the momentum was there, that we were the better side. I’m proud of my guys, and the ones who came in.”
Mainz now sit sixth in the table (though 7th-ranked Leverkusen have a game in hand) and well in contention for the Europa League places. Bayern, meanwhile, see their championship hopes ripped out of their own hands. The Bavarians are left needing Borussia Dortmund to oblige in order to claim an eleventh straight Meisterschale.
Looking for more analysis mixed with a bad-tempered rant? Then check out our postgame podcast! Explicit content warning because there’s swearing, it really was that kind of game. Listen to it below or on Spotify.
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