Bundesliga Preview: Mainz in Poor Form Struggling Away from Home, Can Augsburg Defend Their Home Turf?

On September 21 at 2:30 AM, the 4th round of the 24/25 Bundesliga season kicks off, with Augsburg hosting Mainz at their home ground.

Augsburg finished last season in 11th place. During the summer transfer window, they sold their top scorer Demirovic for €21 million and young midfielder Engels to Celtic for €11 million. Subsequently, Augsburg spent €14 million to bring in Jakic, Edson, Kevin Schlotterbeck, and Kabadai as reinforcements.

Since the start of the new season, Augsburg’s performance has been average, with 1 win, 1 draw, and 1 loss in the first three rounds, accumulating 4 points and currently ranking 11th in the league table. Clearly, Augsburg has not fully adapted to the departure of Demirovic, the 26-year-old Bosnian striker who contributed 15 goals and 9 assists in 33 appearances last season, almost participating in half of the team’s goals.

After Demirovic’s departure, Augsburg placed the goal-scoring responsibility on Titz and new signing Edson, who together scored only 2 goals in the first three rounds, which is neither too bad nor too good. However, Kabadai’s performance was relatively eye-catching, contributing in just 12 minutes on the field, clearly exceeding expectations.

Mainz once played the role of a dark horse in the 22/23 season, but last season they plummeted and narrowly avoided relegation, ultimately finishing in 13th place. During the summer window, their investment was limited, bringing in six new signings including Hong Hyun-seok and Sano Kaito for less than €9 million. After the first three rounds of the new season, Mainz has two draws and one loss, being one of the four Bundesliga teams yet to secure a victory. Fortunately, Bochum, St. Pauli, and Kiel all suffered three consecutive losses, so Mainz barely avoided falling into the relegation zone, currently ranking second-to-last with 2 points.

Mainz’s attack and defense are both relatively weak, scoring only 5 goals in three games, averaging less than 2 goals per game, while conceding 6 goals during the same period, indicating there is room for improvement.

Augsburg’s home performance is average, having won 4, drawn 3, and lost 3 in their last 10 Bundesliga home games across seasons, scoring 15 goals and conceding 14, achieving only 2 clean sheets during this period.

Mainz’s away form is even weaker, with 1 win, 5 draws, and 4 losses in their last 10 away Bundesliga matches across seasons, a win rate of a mere 10%. During this period, Mainz scored only 12 goals but conceded 23, averaging 2.3 conceded goals per game, including an embarrassing 1-8 defeat away to Bayern Munich, where their defense was virtually non-existent.

In the last 10 meetings between the two teams, Augsburg won 6, while Mainz claimed 4 victories. If we consider only the last 5 matches, Mainz had a slight advantage with 3 wins and 2 losses, with few draws between them. Overall, Augsburg is currently in better form, while Mainz is struggling away from home, but they desperately need 3 points to ease their crisis.

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