A BIZARRELY AWARDED penalty and a goalkeeping howler helped Mainz to a vital 2-0 victory over Bundesliga relegation rivals Freiburg on Monday.
Following a nervy first half Mainz took the lead in curious circumstances when they were given a penalty by Video Assistant Referee system VAR after the referee had already blown for half-time.
Freiburg’s Marc-Oliver Kempf was ruled to have handled the ball seconds before the whistle, and he and his team-mates were called back from the dressing room for the penalty to be taken.
Pablo De Blasis kept his cool from 12 yards to give Mainz the lead.
“It leaves a bitter taste, but we have to accept it with a heavy heart,” Freiburg sporting director Jochen Saier told Eurosport at half-time.
“We were under the impression that, when the referee blows for half-time, that’s it.”
The confusion continued after the break, as fans threw toilet rolls onto the pitch in protest against Monday night games, delaying the restart by several minutes.
Mainz remained the stronger team in the second half, and De Blasis wrapped up victory 11 minutes from time after an embarrassing error from Alexander Schwolow.
The Freiburg keeper gifted Mainz possession inside his own penalty area, and Colin Quaison squared the ball to provide De Blasis with an open goal.
The win saw Mainz move out of the bottom three for the first time since January, drawing level on points with Freiburg, who drop down into the relegation play-off place.
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Incredible finish. He was actually pulling away even though he went from so far out. His leadout man did suberbly. Thought he’d left it to late to bring him into position and then thought he left him go too early. Perfectly timed sprint.
@Brendan Heery: Shane Archibold joined the team recently, to do exactly this. Great to see it working.
Tragic that he’s not going to be in the tdf. Best form of any sprinter right now I reckon
Pity! Be great to have seen him outsprinting Sagan and da Guerilla Griepel.
@Bryn Capstan: He did beat Griepel (15th) yesterday…
Why did’nt his team select him?
@running man: they have another rider, Peter Sagan who is one of the best in the world. He’s currently out of form but he brings massive amounts of publicity to the team though as he’s probably one of the most famous and popular riders.