Borussia Mönchengladbach made light work of Schott Mainz at the Otto-Schott-Sportzentrum, running out 5-0 winners in the German Cup's Round of 64 on Saturday. The visitors were never in doubt, and here's the thing — they rarely looked like they would be. Bolin opened the scoring, Hashioka made it two, and then Bolin struck again before half-time to put the result beyond serious question.
By then the match had already taken its shape. Gladbach's statistics tell the story: 78 per cent possession, 172 attacks compared to 42, and expected goals of 4.49 against 0.12 for the hosts. Mainz managed one shot on target in the entire contest, and their goalkeeper was called into action eight times. To be fair, the visitors had created eight big chances and converted five of them.
Bolin's first came in the twenty-second minute and his second in the forty-eighth, while Hashioka's goal in the twenty-fifth had given Gladbach a comfortable cushion. Ullrich added a fourth in the sixty-first before being substituted himself moments later, and Mohya rounded off the scoring in the sixty-seventh. Diks picked up a yellow card on the stroke of half-time, and that was the only card shown in a match where Mainz committed just five fouls.
The substitutions tell their own story. Messina and Itoi went off together in the fifty-sixth, Leszczynski followed in the fifty-seventh, and then Ullrich and Hack were paired off in the sixty-third. Bolin came off with Stoger in the seventieth, Zeghli and El Mahaoui were replaced in the seventy-fourth, and Robotta was the last to leave the pitch in the eighty-fifth. Mainz made no changes of their own — the coach simply watched from the bench.
What will stick with Gladbach fans is the efficiency. Thirteen shots on target produced five goals, and their accuracy rate of 43 per cent on shots off target suggests they were simply too clinical. Mainz's 22 per cent possession and 134 successful passes from 219 attempts paint a picture of a side that rarely saw the ball. The German Cup quarter awaits, and by then the visitors will be looking for more of the same.
