stage

The situation

“We now have 5 necessary matches in two weeks,” says Niko Kovac, looking forward to the play-off matches towards Atalanta within the Champions League and the Bundesliga matches towards Mainz, Leipzig and Bayern. Friday’s match towards FSV marks the beginning of a busy interval for the Black & Yellows, who’re second within the desk on 48 factors and are unbeaten within the Bundesliga since October 2025. The BVB head coach says that makes victory on Friday night much more necessary: “Mainz is an important sport for me as a result of a win will assist us to arrange for the upcoming video games.”

Commercial

Personnel issues

Niko Kovac needed to do with out 5 gamers towards VfL Wolfsburg as Karim Adeyemi, Emre Can, Marcel Sabitzer and Filippo Mane have been out with accidents, whereas Yan Couto was sick. There may be excellent news about three of these 5 gamers forward of the match towards Mainz. Yan Couto educated individually on Wednesday however might return to the squad on Friday. “He’s on the mend. I hope he shall be out there,” explains Kovac. Issues are wanting even higher for Marcel Sabitzer because the midfielder took half in parts of crew coaching on Tuesday and Wednesday, so Kovac expects Sabitzer to be again towards Mainz. The identical applies to Karim Adeyemi: “He is able to play.”

However Borussia will certainly be with out three defenders on Friday as Emre Can and Filippo Mane are nonetheless out with accidents, whereas Nico Schlotterbeck is suspended for the upcoming matchday after selecting up his fifth yellow card within the sport towards Wolfsburg. Nonetheless, Kovac believes the squad is effectively ready: “I’m satisfied that we’ve sufficient high quality to win the sport.”

Commercial

The opponent

Final December, Mainz introduced again Urs Fischer, the coach who led Union Berlin to the German high flight in 2019 and even to Champions League qualification in 2023. Below their new coach, FSV are the second finest crew within the league for the reason that winter break, with BVB main the pack forward of TSG Hoffenheim and FC Bayern. “I am delighted that he is again within the Bundesliga. He did a terrific job in Berlin,” says Niko Kovac about Fischer. “You possibly can see that he is now demonstrating these qualities at Mainz too.” In the end, nevertheless, Mainz are nonetheless in a relegation battle, sitting one level above the relegation play-off spot and three factors behind fifteenth on 12 factors. Based on Kovac, that’s exactly what makes the opponents so harmful: “Mainz are preventing for survival. They put in good performances in Munich and Leipzig. This isn’t a walkover, this can be a very well-prepared crew,“ says Kovac, whose major concern is the guests’ counter-attacks, usually with deep balls performed in behind the defensive position.

Beier double and Silva debut  

Niko Kovac has confronted FSV Mainz 05 twice as BVB coach to date, and each instances the Black & Yellows got here out on high. In March 2025, Maximilian Beier scored his first and solely brace for BVB in a 3-1 dwelling win, and Nico Schlotterbeck took nook kicks for the primary time in his Bundesliga profession – two of which led to the targets that made it 2-0 and 3-0. In September 2025, Fabio Silva made his Bundesliga debut towards Mainz, with Borussia profitable 2-0. Since then, Silva has performed 23 extra video games for BVB, scoring as soon as and organising six extra targets.

Nina Bargel-Neuhaus