Patrik Schick on target again as Bayer Leverkusen edge a 4-3 thriller at Mainz

Seven goals, four of them from the away side, decided a frantic afternoon at the MEWA Arena as Bayer Leverkusen beat Mainz 4-3. Robert Andrich and Patrik Schick had the visitors two goals up inside nine minutes, only for Anthony Caci to drag the hosts level either side of half-time. Jarell Quansah and Moussa Diaby restored Leverkusen's lead in the second half, and Benedict Hollerbach's stoppage-time goal was no more than a consolation for Mainz.

Leverkusen race into a two-goal lead

The visitors could hardly have asked for a better opening. Robert Andrich scored in the 5th minute, and Patrik Schick — set up by Aleix García — doubled the lead four minutes later. Mainz, 2-0 down before the tenth minute, had to find a way back into a game that had threatened to get away from them almost immediately.

They found it through Anthony Caci. The full-back scored in the 33rd minute, then again in the 42nd — the second assisted by Nadiem Amiri — to leave the sides level, 2-2, at the break. It was as complete a response as a two-goal deficit allows, and for a spell either side of half-time Mainz looked the likelier winners.

Quansah and Diaby turn it back Leverkusen's way

The lead changed hands twice more before full time. Jarell Quansah put Leverkusen back in front in the 55th minute, and Moussa Diaby — assisted by substitute Afonso Moreira — made it 4-2 in the 65th. Benedict Hollerbach pulled one back for Mainz in the second minute of stoppage time, but there was no time left to find a third equaliser.

How the seven goals came

Cards

• 20' — Phillip Tietz (Mainz), yellow
• 35' — Sheraldo Becker (Mainz), yellow
• 76' — Jaesung Lee (Mainz), yellow
• 90+3' — Jarell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen), yellow

Form going into a high-scoring afternoon

Both sides arrived in reasonable form. Mainz had drawn their opener with Paderborn, beaten Hamburger SV 5-0, lost 1-3 at home to Eintracht Frankfurt and won 4-3 away at Borussia Mönchengladbach — two wins, a draw and a loss, with 10 goals scored and 6 conceded. Leverkusen had lost their opener 2-3 at Elversberg before beating Union Berlin 4-0, drawing 2-2 at Augsburg and winning 2-0 at home to RB Leipzig, an identical two wins, one draw, one loss record with the same 10 goals scored and 5 conceded. Neither side's results suggested a seven-goal game was coming, but both had already shown they could score freely and leak goals doing it.

Line-ups

• 1. FSV Mainz 05: Alexander Schwolow — Phillipp Mwene, Fabio Gruber, Stefan Posch, Eric Martel — Kacper Potulski, Kaishu Sano, Anthony Caci — Nadiem Amiri, Phillip Tietz, Sheraldo Becker
• Bayer Leverkusen (4-2-3-1): Mark Flekken — Facundo Medina, Miguel Gutiérrez, Jarell Quansah, Edmond Tapsoba — Robert Andrich, Aleix García — Ibrahim Maza, Afonso Moreira, Moussa Diaby — Patrik Schick

What the result means

Mainz had entered the round 7th on 7 points from four games; the defeat leaves them on 7 still, with their eventual position depending on the rest of the weekend's results. Leverkusen, who sat 6th on 7 points before kick-off, move to 10 and put real distance between themselves and a chasing group they had been level with — a group that, after this result, now includes the side they just beat.

What's next

For Leverkusen, a fourth win in five pushes them toward the top end of the table just as the round's bigger results elsewhere start to take shape. For Mainz, the concern will be a defence that has now shipped four goals in a single match for the first time this season, even against a front line as sharp as Schick and Diaby's — a lesson Urs Fischer's side will need to take into their next round of fixtures.