Borussia Dortmund ran out 2-0 winners over 10-man FSV Mainz 05 at the Mewa Arena, building further on what was already their best start to a season for a decade after scoring at least twice in a seventh successive away league game (W5, D2).
Looking to build on their first league win of the campaign, Mainz hosted a Dortmund side that had only dropped two points prior to kick-off.
Aiming to atone for their defeats in successive corresponding fixtures over the previous two seasons, the visitors made the more purposeful start, but they could have found themselves behind 25 minutes in, when Paul Nebel – a scorer last weekend and in his two previous H2Hs against Der BVB – got on the end of a cross inside the box but could only hit the right-hand post with his subsequent effort.
Dortmund made Mainz pay dearly for that wasted opportunity just two minutes later, when a quick counter saw Karim Adeyemi feed Maximilian Beier inside the box, who then played the ball wide to an overlapping Julian Brandt, and he rolled the ball across the face of goal for Daniel Svensson to tap in his first goal of the campaign.
The visitors now had control of proceedings and doubled their lead five minutes before the interval, with Brandt again the provider on a breakaway, playing a one-two with Adeyemi, who finished low past Robin Zentner.
A Mainz corner just before the hour mark might have made things interesting, especially if Maxim Leitsch had been able to beat Gregor Kobel with his head at the end of it. As it was, the Dortmund stopper made an impressive save to thwart him.
His opposite number then took the spotlight for a very different reason, with another breakaway headed by Adeyemi resulting in Zentner bringing him down outside the box.
The denial of a goalscoring opportunity was obvious, and the straight red card that ensued made Mainz’s task an almost impossible one.
With Adeyemi having netted first or last in seven of his previous eight scoring appearances, the more superstitious Mainz fan might have thought likewise.
Ultimately, there was little that they could do to prevent their fate, even with some moments of promise – a header wide and a rising shot over the bar from Nadiem Amiri were two notable ones. That said, Dortmund could have added a third late on, but Zentner’s understudy, Lasse Riess, made the most of his impromptu audition, palming away a powerful top-right bound shot from Brandt.
With this result, Dortmund are back within two points of perfect leaders Bayern Munich, while some Mainz fans may already be glancing nervously over their shoulders at the drop zone, as their wait for a clean sheet bleeds into a 16th league match.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Karim Adeyemi (Borussia Dortmund)