Mainz, March 17 (BNA): Axel Witsel scored a late goal to give Borussia Dortmund a bad 1-0 victory over Mainz on Wednesday in their postponed match in the German League, reducing the gap on leaders Bayern Munich to four points.
American striker Gio Reina, who came on in the 69th minute as a substitute, set up the winning goal by hitting a free kick to the far post for Witsel in the 87th minute.yAP reports.
But the game itself had quite a few highlights as it was peppered with many bugs, cheats, and controversies. Dortmund midfielder Marius Wolf and Mainz counterpart Stefan Bell were booked ahead of the break after a strong match erupted on the culmination of increasingly frayed nerves.
There was another flare-up at the end when Judd Bellingham was fouled by Anderson Lokoki, who was booked. Witsel was also booked into injury time, for a tactical foul, before Rina superbly saved Robin Zentner with another free kick.
The teams had originally stopped playing on March 6 but the match was called off due to the coronavirus outbreak in Mainz. Bo Svensson’s team also had its next game in Augsburg with at least 20 team members and coaching staff infected with COVID-19. The Augsburg match has been postponed to April 26.
Mainz showed no ill effects from the forced break as they thwarted Dortmund’s attack and may have scored when Jonathan Burkhardt was saved by Emre Can at the best chance of the first half.
Dortmund coach Marco Rose brought in Erling Haaland in place of Wolff to revitalize his lackluster attack in the 57th minute, followed by Reina and Julian Brandt.
Eight rounds left.