After a hugely successful campaign last season under Thomas Tuchel, Mainz finished in seventh place to book themselves a potential place in this season's Europa League. A new season, a new manager, and a few new players, they take on Greek opposition Asteras Tripolis in the third qualifying round. "Playing in the Europa League's a massive opportunity for us," enthused Mainz sporting director Christian Heidel. "We're really excited about it. Balancing domestic and European football will be a challenge, but that's part of the attraction" (via Bundesliga.com).

Summer Ins & Outs

Besides the disappointing resignation of popular coach Tuchel, the loss of Cameroon international Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting to Schalke on a costless left new manager Kasper Hjulmand with the task of replacing the 25 year old, who scored ten times and assisted three in Tuchel's final season. Serbian attacker Filip Djuricic arrived from SL Benfica on a year's loan with a view to a €12.5m permanent move. "He is a talented, agile, versatile and dangerous in front of the goal. Due to his versatility he will give us greater variability," Hjulmand said of his marquee signing. Chile international Gonzalo Jara also signed for costless, Greuther's Furth's Daniel Brosinki as well as Stefanos Kapino from Panathinaikos as back up for number one Loris Karius after a bid for Bolton's Adam Bogdan was rejected. The only one other notable departure was Shawn Parker to Augsburg.

The Opposition

Asteras' rise has been impressive, having competed in the fourth division of the Greek league ten years ago they had reached the qualifiers for last season's Europa League and having already played twice competitively this season, whilst Mainz are still in pre- season. Finnish side RoPS Rovaniemi stood in Asteras' way of the tie against Mainz, and after a 1-1 draw in the first leg they triumphed 4-2 at home last week to set up a tie at the Coface Arena this Thursday.

Key Player- Mainz

There's a number of key individuals in this Mainz team- Karius, Diaz, Bell, Muller, Okazaki to name a few, but the real leader of this team is holding midfielder Johannes Geis.

Geis, 20, joined from Greuther Fürth at the start of last season and wowed many with his industrious displays, usually in a pivot in a 4-2-3-1 formation. The German is among the best in the league and is the complete midfielder. Of the 250 players to attempt 50+ crosses in Europe’s top 5 leagues in 2014, Geis had the best cross accuracy (43.8%, via Who Scored), creating 70 chances and winning 47 % of his duels last season (Squakwa). He is the anchor to the 05'ers defence and should protect his team well and possibly assist offensively considering his attacking prowess and the admittedly weaker opposition come Thursday.

Key Player- Asteras Tripolos

Attacking midfielder Pablo de Blasis scored a total of nine goals and contributed seven assists in the Greek Super League and is probably Asteras's main threat going forward against Mainz. De Blasis netted twice against RoPS and should give Geis and co. some work to do on Thursday evening.


Predicted Mainz line up: L. Karius, D. Brosinski, S. Bell, N. Noveski, J. Díaz, J. Geis, E. Soto, N. Müller, F. Djuricic, J. Koo, S. Okazaki

Predicted Asteras line up: G. Bantis, B. Lluy, K. Sankaré, D. Goian, T. Panteliadis, D. Kourbelis, M.Usero, M. Rolle, A. Bakasetas, P. de Blasis, J. Barrales

Score prediction: Mainz 3-1 Asteras Tripolis.

A place in the play-offs awaits the winners. The second leg is scheduled for August 7th.