Mainz and Paderborn open the season with a goalless draw shaped by Nahuel Noll

The 2026-27 Bundesliga got its first goalless draw on matchday 1, with Mainz and SC Paderborn splitting the points at the MEWA ARENA. Mainz pushed for the win and could not find it; promoted Paderborn dug in and left with a point on their return to the top flight.

Mainz had the better of the chances — 21 shots to 17 — but only four of theirs were on target, and Paderborn keeper Nahuel Noll dealt with all of them. He turned aside efforts from Phillipp Mwene and Dominik Kohr in the second half and was voted man of the match by the fans.

Match facts

• No goals — the first 0-0 of the 2026-27 Bundesliga season
• Mainz out-shot Paderborn 21-17 but managed only four shots on target to Paderborn's none
• Paderborn goalkeeper Nahuel Noll voted man of the match

Possession barely separated the teams. The gap was in the final third, where Mainz worked the ball into shooting positions again and again without hitting the target enough to trouble Noll.

What's next

The Bundesliga table stays unsettled until matchday 1 finishes, but a point apiece leaves both sides in mid-table on the opening weekend — Mainz will feel they dropped two at home, Paderborn that they earned one on the road. Matchday 2 is next weekend, and Paderborn will take the clean sheet and Noll's form into it.

Mainz turned it around; Paderborn found their finishing

Three matchdays on, the opening draw reads very differently for each side. Mainz lost 1-3 at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on matchday 3, then won a seven-goal thriller 4-3 away at Borussia Mönchengladbach on matchday 4 — Phillip Tietz and Sheraldo Becker pulled them level either side of half-time before Eric Martel and Danny da Costa scored twice in the final 12 minutes to see off a Gladbach side still chasing its first point of the season. That result lifted Mainz to 6th in the Bundesliga table on 7 points from four games, with 10 scored and 6 conceded, right behind the Champions League places held by Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, SC Freiburg and FC Augsburg.

Paderborn's clean sheet against Mainz was followed by a heavier reality check — a 0-3 defeat away at Borussia Dortmund on matchday 3, in which the promoted side still had not scored a single Bundesliga goal all season. That drought ended on matchday 4, when Steffen Tigges was among the scorers in a 3-1 win over TSG Hoffenheim at the Home Deluxe Arena, Paderborn's first league win since coming back up. It moved Ralf Kettemann's side to 12th on 4 points, with 3 scored and 4 conceded, clear of the bottom three after three matches without a win to open the campaign.

Where the opening-day point sits now

That goalless draw at the MEWA ARENA was, at the time of writing, the only Bundesliga meeting between the two clubs in Guriball's archive — a product of Paderborn's own history of yo-yoing between divisions rather than anything unusual about the fixture. With four rounds played, Mainz's point at home has been followed by results that pulled them into the top half of the table and within four points of a Champions League spot, while Paderborn's point on the road — sandwiched between a heavy defeat and a first win — has them clear of the relegation play-off zone but still short of the sort of home form that would put more distance between them and the bottom three. Both sides return from the international break looking to build on the shape their form has taken since they shared the points on the opening weekend.