Tribal Football

Bochum relegated from Bundesliga after heavy Mainz loss

Ryan Fisher
Bochum are heading back down to the second tier
Bochum are heading back down to the second tierAnke Waelischmiller / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP
An eighth successive Bundesliga match without a win condemned Bochum to relegation from the top flight, with Dieter Hecking’s men all but guaranteed to finish bottom of the table after a 4-1 defeat to Mainz.

The hosts could ill-afford a poor start on such an important day, yet they were slow off the mark and were almost punished when Jonathan Burkardt – who has scored a brace in both of his previous two H2H appearances – saw his shot take a wicked deflection and force Timo Horn into a save inside 30 seconds.

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An opening goal for Heidenheim elsewhere meant that not even a win would save Bochum, but their blunt attacking play always made such an outcome unlikely. Instead, they were hanging on inside the opening 10 minutes, with centre-back Ivan Ordets scrambling onto the goalline to head Phillipp Mwene’s curling effort to safety.

Bochum stabilised from there, but numerous promising openings came and went without a clear-cut chance being created, and deep into first-half stoppage time, they were finally punished.

Nadiem Amiri lined up a free-kick from 25 yards and placed the ball perfectly into the top corner beyond the reach of a despairing Horn.

With time running out on their top-flight future, Bochum made a triple change at the break in the hopes of igniting a comeback. Unfortunately for the home fans, that failed to make an impact as Mainz remained on top, with Horn making a good save to deny Paul Nebel before the 05ers doubled their lead on 54 minutes.

An exquisite backheel from Burkardt sliced the Bochum defence open, allowing Lee Jae-sung to find Mwene at the back post, who applied the finishing touch for his first goal since April 2024.

An anti-climactic afternoon for the vociferous home crowd got even worse when Burkardt beautifully swept home his 17th Bundesliga goal of the season.

Gerrit Holtmann grabbed a late consolation for Bochum, but any faint smiles were wiped off the home fans’ faces when Nebel swept home a sumptuous volley for the visitors’ fourth, as they emphatically ended their own seven-match winless run to retake their place inside the top six.

Flashscore Man of the Match: Paul Nebel (Mainz)

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