Bayer Leverkusen vs FSV Mainz 05 Prediction: League leaders to win and over 2.5 goals

When Bayer Leverkusen host Mainz 05 in the BayArena on Friday night, they want to shatter the all-time German football record. The visitors are languishing at the bottom of the standings and are looking to hold onto their top-flight status for a 16th straight season, while the hosts are attempting to win their first-ever Bundesliga championship this season.

Currently ranked 17th in the Bundesliga, FSV Mainz has not played at their peak level this year. The opposition, who defeated FC Augsburg by a slim 1-0 margin last week, will be feeling optimistic going into this match.

Conversely, Bayer Leverkusen is now leading the league standings and has been playing quite well this year. The hosts will try to duplicate their previous game's outcome, which saw them defeat FC Heidenheim 2-1.

Fans will be eager to see if Leverkusen to finish the season without a league defeat. 

Leverkusen are now the clear favourite for the Bundesliga title after going eight points clear at the top of the league tale. Bayer Leverkusen will enter this one high on confidence after defeating Bayern Munich 3-0 and Heidenheim 1-2 in their previous game. 

The defensive line for Bayer Leverkusen has put up some excellent performances, as seen by the fact that their cumulative "goals against" total for the previous six games is 4. Their forwards have managed to score 12 goals in the same time frame. We'll see if that pattern holds for this upcoming game.

As of the start of this match, Bayer Leverkusen had won their previous ten away league games. What a fantastic run they've had together. Before this game, Bayer Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso had no fitness concerns because he had an entirely healthy roster.

With just 22 points from their first 21 league games this season, Mainz has drastically fallen from glory after finishing the 2022-23 campaign just four points shy of the European qualifying slots. Mainz has only won one league game, drawn 2 and lost 2 of the last five league games played. This is the poorest start to a top-flight season since Schalke's bottom-of-the-table finish in 2020-21.

Two managers have already been fired as a result of their bad play this season; Jan Siewert was fired by the team last week after taking over for his predecessor Bo Svensson after just 12 games.

Bo Henriksen, who was formerly employed by FC Zurich for two years, has been put in charge of leading the team from Rheinhessen to safety after the season this coming weekend. But history is undoubtedly not in the new manager's favour; only Augsburg in 2012–13 was able to close such a significant deficit to safety in the second half of a Bundesliga season.

Leverkusen is the clear favourite going into Friday's game, despite Mainz's celebration of last season's triumph at the BayArena. Both clubs will be motivated to take all three points for different reasons. 

This season, Bayer Leverkusen has been outstanding thus far, and in the months to come, they might create history. Alonso and company have proven that they are still a danger offensively even without Boniface, and they should have no trouble breaking through Mainz's defense and winning the match to increase their title chances. Players who can be deadly on their day, such as Florian Wirtz and Amine Adli, will try to leave their mark this week.

Although they haven't played at their best yet this season, FSV Mainz is a formidable opponent on their day. Since Bayer Leverkusen is now the superior team, they ought to be able to win this match.

Scoreline of 3-1 or 3-0 is possible.