Lucien Favre: Borussia Dortmund underestimated Mainz in shock defeat

Borussia Dortmund head coach Lucien Favre has lamented his side’s lack of desire and costly mistakes in their shock 2-0 defeat to Mainz.

Borussia Dortmund were far from their best on Wednesday evening, as relegation threatened Mainz took a huge step towards survival with a 2-0 win at the Signal Iduna Park. Goals from Jonathan Burkardt and Jean-Philippe Mateta either side of half-time gave Mainz a relatively straight forward win, as the Black and Yellows were outplayed in every department.

The defeat means that Borussia Dortmund now only have a three point lead (and the same goal difference) over RB Leipzig going into this weekend’s clash between the two sides.

Head coach Lucien Favre believes his side underestimated their opponents, and slacked off in the defeat to Mainz. Speaking during his press conference after the game, Favre said:

"“We cannot afford to slack off. Today we were not good, it was a big disappointment how we played. We underestimated the opponent a little.”“We must have more patience and more desire against such teams. We did not defend together as a team. There were no sprints, there was no game intelligence. It starts at the front, then it continues in midfield and then in defence.”“On the first goal we make three, four or five mistakes in a row. You can’t do that against an opponent that is very athletic and has a lot of power.”"

Borussia Dortmund licensed players department Sebastian Kehl was also critical of the performance, highlighting that Mainz covered a distance of nine kilometres more than Lucien Favre’s side. Speaking to Sky, Kehl said:

"“We could have made a big step towards finishing second, now we have to do it on Saturday. After the game today, you have to take criticism.”“I didn’t have the feeling of a drop in intensity during training. In the game it looked different, everyone has to question themselves. But we should not question everything on the basis of this one result. We still won in Düsseldorf with a weak performance, but this greed was not to be seen today.”"

Kehl also denied that Gio Reyna was suspected of having contacted the coronavirus. “That is a false report,” Kehl said. “He’s sick, as it happens to all other people. He is still in the testing process, all tests were negative. One should be more sensitive to this issue.”

Borussia Dortmund must now quickly turn their attentions to Saturday’s trip to RB Leipzig, where a defeat would see them slip to third place in the Bundesliga standings. With just two games to go before the end of the season, Dortmund’s season could yet be in danger of petering out. Lucien Favre’s future is still up in the air, and failing to secure second place would only make the calls for him to be sacked more vocal.