For Borussia Dortmund, Marco Reus' contract extension is more meaningful than it seems on the surface. The star player, courted by many of Europe's giants, refused to jump ship and extended his contract with his youth club until 2019. A pay raise accompanies his extension. Reus seemed unsure of a future with Dortmund; his release clause was small enough for most big giants to easily activate. Dortmund did away with the release clause in the extension. The announcement came in a week in which Dortmund lifted themselves off the bottom of the table up to the relegation play off spot. The win was only their fifth of the campaign and their second against Freiburg. Reus broke the deadlock; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang added two more to give BVB a 0-3 victory.
BVB's footballing philosophy is shared by the side from the town of carnivals, Mainz 05. They had a weekend to forget unlike Dortmund though. After roughly half an hour had been played, their keeper Loris Karius was sent off; Jens Hegeler opened the scoring from the penalty spot for Hertha. Roy Beerens added a second before half time. In the second half, Fabian Lustenburger saw red for the side from the capital but Mainz could not come back. They sit in thirteenth spot in the table with four wins, ten draws and six losses to their name. Dortmund has already lost 11 matches this season.
For the side from the Ruhr, former captain Sebastian Kehl, tough midfielder Sven Bender, veteran winger Kuba, utility man Kevin Grosskreutz and youngster Erik Durm are out. For Mainz, Todor Nedelev, Jairo Samperio and former Schalke man Christoph Moritz are out injured. Karius is suspended. In their previous meeting this season, Mainz ran out 2-0 winners. Matthias Ginter's own goal put the nail in Dortmund's coffin after Shinji Okazaki had opened the scoring.
Can BVB added another win? Or was the victory over Freiburg a false turn? Interested in learning how you can watch the 2014-15 Bundesliga? Check out our Bundesliga Multi-Platform Broadcast Guide
Borussia Dortmund vs Mainz team sheets
Dortmund's lineup: Weidenfeller, Piszczek, Subotic, Sokratis, Schmelzer, Sahin, Gündogan, Kampl, Kagawa, Reus, Aubameyang.
Mainz's lineup: Kapino, Brosinski, Bell, Bungert, Bengtsson, Soto, Baumgartlinger, Malli, Geis, Hofmann, Okazaki.
Dortmund's bench: Langerak, Ginter, Kirch, Ramos, Immobile, Mkhitaryan, Jojic
Mainz's bench: To follow
Match details, result and original broadcast info
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