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18:28. That's all from me, Jonathan Walsh, this evening. A great game and Max Kruse's goal was equally as impressive. Hofmann's penalty equalised, as both sides are left with a point. Be sure to stay with VAVEL for all the Bundesliga news, views and reviews you could want, all under one roof. I bid you adieu and a good evening!

18:26. Despite there only being two goals, the game was great from start to finish. Full of chances, entertainment and controversy. Raffael and Hazard had chances to win it and Lucien Favre's expression is one of disbelief. Kasper Hjulmand will be overjoyed that his side have got away with a point.

FT: Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-1 Mainz.

93' Nothing doing so far in extra-time, the whistle is about to blow..

90' Kruse can only find the wall and thehn Stranzl heads over. 3 minutes added on!

88' WOW! That was a brilliant move from Gladbach and Raffael was faced with an open net. Somehow Stefan Bell denies him twice, when it looked easier to miss than score. Yellow for Diaz after a handball, another good position for the hosts.

87' Mainz being made to work hard for this point, Geis and Jara with strong tackles to keep them level.

86' Raffael can't get it up and over in time. Not the Brazilian's day, I'm afraid.

84' Malli goes into the book for a handball. Kairus then does brilliantly to deny Thorgan Hazard, costless-kick on the edge for the hosts..

83' Okazaki flings himself at a Geis costless-kick, but he can't direct the attempt on target.Both teams seem somewhat happy with a point, Gladbach will be desperate for three.

82' Wendt harshly called offside, not that much would have game from Xhaka's ball. Hujlmand pacing his technical area, will his side gain a great away point?

80' Karius almost spilt the ball into his own goal and substitute Malli had Sommer worried in regards to his long-range drive. 10 to go!

73' The furious pace seems to have taken it's toll on Mainz. They're under a lot of pressure from Gladbach and can't seem to get a hold of the ball.

72' Hahn almost gets the goal, but his shot is deflected and straight to Karius.

70' Double change for Gladbach: Hahn and Hazard on for Herrmann and Johnson. Can the change on the wings prove the difference?

68' Sommer just about nudges the ball out for his feet just before Okazaki gets there. Close call.

67' GREAT SAVE! Sommer does brilliant to deny Jairo one-on-one, what an impact substitution that would have been!

65' A fantastic tackle from Korb denies Okazaki in full-flight, he gets a boot in his face for his troubles, but a great tackle nevertheless.

64' Karius does extremely well to come out and meet Raffael's long ball, Neuer-esque.

63' Some good work from Diaz in the corner wins a throw in, before Geis comes on for Christoph Moritz.

61' Okazaki's header from the resulting costless-kick is just wide, that had Sommer scrambling!

60' Jantschke booked for going through the back of off, while Jairo replaces Djuricic.

59' Bell makes a good intervention to stop Kruse connecting with a looping cross, Karius gathers and then does well to stop the forward's cross.

58' Eventually a forced break in play. Djuricic goes into the referee's notebook for a tactical foul on Raffael. Not long after, the Brazilian stings Karius' palms from 25 yards.

56' Wendt gets in behind the Mainz defence, the left-back can't find a man and Jara chests down to clear. Hopeful handball appeals from the home faithful fall on deaf ears, hopeful being the word.

55' Brosinski very nearly slipped in by Jara, only for Stranzl to make a great covering challenge.

54' Mainz now happy to keep the ball after a rapid start to the second-half, Diaz' cross almost found Okazaki but he is correctly called offside.

52' The bedlam continues! Hofmann's cross hacked clear by Stranzl and Moritz is forced to tackle Raffael at the other end.

51' Game is incredibly end to end at the moment, Xhaka is the next to try his luck and Karius does well to hold the Swiss' powerful drive.

50' Mainz get on the ball and work it up to Okazaki and Hofmann, but BVB's on-loan winger can't produce the final pass.

49' Good work down the right and Herrmann breaks down that wing, unfortunately his touch is poor and the ball breaks away from him.

48' A photo of Jonas Hofmann converting the equalising penalty:

47' Jantschke's long ball causes havoc in the Mainz defence, but they eventually push the hosts back.

46' We're back underway in Gladbach, will either side be able to get a winner?

HT: Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-1 Mainz. Hofmann's controversial penalty equalised after Kruse opening the scored with a lovely goal.

45' A good chance for Mainz to find a goal before half-time, but Djuricic sees his shot blocked. One minute added on.

42' Martin Stranzl overly angry about not getting an offisde decision, nothing came from it, but needless aggression towards the referee. Okazaki gets the game's first yellow for jumping into Jantschke.

41' Big chance wasted for Gladbach! Raffael cuts inside after some good team play from Gladbach, he leaves Diaz on the floor but can't get his shot on target.

39' After giving the ball away twice, Xhaka does well to recover twice and stops Mainz from breaking through on goal. Tempo has dropped slightly after an exciting 10 minutes.

37' Okazaki may be small, but Stanzl signalling he attacked his hip with an elbow is absurd. The Austrian is back up and going again.

35' On second viewing, it's an absolutely fantastic tackle from Bungert. Gladbach try their luck and Hermann fires straight at Karius, momentum building for the hosts.

34' Was that a penalty?! My oh my, that's another tough one. Kruse is taken down by Bungert, but he got a slight knick on the ball. They've been given.. Anyhow, here's Hofmann's penalty:

32' Quite a controversial decision from Manuel Gräfe, with debate as to whether it was actually inside the box or not. Korb the cuplprit, Hofmann steps up and cooly converts, no trouble there.

31' HOFMANN SCORES, CALM AS YOU LIKE!

30' PENALTY MAINZ! KORB HANDBALL!

29' Xhaka has another effort from range, this time on target and it's easy pickings for Karius. Bell goes down injured after a seemingly non-event with Kruse, but he's fit to carry on.

28' Mainz starting to work things down the right, a Stranzl clearance and a corner headed over by Stefan Bell. A sign of a comeback, perhaps?

26' Brosinski is tireless down that right-hand side, constantly supporting Jara. Xhaka tries his luck from 30 yards, it's always rising and flies over. Meanwhile, here's Max Kruse's opener:

23' Brosinski gets it up and over the wall, but there's nowhere near enough power to trouble Sommer. He just walks across and picks it up.

22' Mainz finally get a costless-kick on the edge of the box for all their probing. No Geis to take this one..

20' Some intelligent play from Hofmann and Mainz' midfield is eventually wasted, due to some slow build-up. The same can be said of Herrmann and Gladbach at the other end.

18' Mainz' attempt to hiot back immediately doesn't pay dividends, as a header goes wide of Sommer's goal. Some great, last-ditch defending from Bungert halts a rampaging Kruse.

15' Kruse started the move and finished it! He nodded down to Johnson, who fed Raffael and then Herrmann. The rapid-winger cut it back to his partner in crime, before finding Kruse in the box. Despite the attentions of his marker,he touched it up to volley the ball and struck a sweet shot past a helpless Karius. All in one swoop. Great play from Gladbach.

TOR KRUSE! GLADBACH LEAD!

13' Mainz get into a promising position and Hofmann can't make the most of the edge-of-the-box opportunity. At the other end, Karius is out well to sweep up what's in front of him.

12' Thankfully for Mainz, Hofmann returns to action. Karius takes a terrible first touch and is lucky that Raffael doesn't intercept it, just about gets it clear.

9' Game finally re-starts with Hofmann gingerly walking off the side of the pitch. Okazaki's runs are giving Stanzl and Jantschke plenty of early work to do, not chance yet for him however.

7' Ouch. Wendt follows through on Hofmann and scissor tackles him. Not looking good for the on-loan BVB winger.

6' Physical start from both sides, with Hofmann, Diaz and Kramer all involved in hefty tackles in the middle of the part. Okazaki almost found by Brosinski's raking pass, only for the offside flag to deny him a run on goal.

4' Good save from Karius! Mainz, sitting deep and inviting pressure, almost give up an instant goal. Herrmann beats Diaz and cuts the ball back to Raffael, but the Mainz custodian is down well to save.

3' Now that the visitors do get on the ball, they seem keen to play it along the back and when they eventually do go long it rolls through to Sommer.

2' Gladbach more than happy to play keep-ball early on, Mainz are yet to touch the ball.

1' The hosts get us underway, enjoy the match!

16:31. Gladbach applaud their supporters and both are in huddles before the game.

16:29. The sides are out and we're almost underway, here's hoping it's a cracking game!

16:26. The teams have re-entered the changings rooms and are about to come out onto the pitch!

16:22. In this afternoon's other Bundesliga game, Wolfsburg beat a stubborn Augsburg side by one-goal-to-nil. Naldo's second-half strike was enough to seperate the teams.

16:18. Borussia Park is filled to the brim, neither side will want to give up their unbeaten records.

16:17. Just a few minutes to go now!

16:00. Borussia-Park looks in fantastic condition ahead of tonight's game.

15:48. Here's todays team sheet:

15:43. Mainz are also ready for their warm up, just forty-five minutes 'til kick-off!

15:42. Borussia Mönchengladbach have arrived and are disembarking the bus as we speak.

15:37. Mainz team to face Karius; Jara, Bungert, Bell, Diaz; Baumgartlinger, Moritz; Brosinski, Djuricic, Hofmann; Okazaki.

15:30. Borussia Mönchengladbach team to face Mainz: Sommer; Korb, Stranzl, Jantschke, Wendt; Kramer, Xhaka, Herrmann, Johnson; Raffael, Kruse.

15:20. Team news is coming up for you now, stay tuned!

15:10. A shot from Gladbach's traning yesterday shows Kramer, Raffael and Johnson in attendence; meaning they will have a full choice squad for today's game.

15:00. Mainz haven't won against Borussia Mönchengladbach since 2011. A run of seven games without a win against today's opponents, they'll be desperate to set the record straight. Before the barren run, the Carnival club had only lost twice in the other meetings between the teams. Apart from a 0-0 draw in December last year, Gladbach have scored twelve goals in their last four meetings and will be keen to keep up their fantastic recent run.

14:50. In one of the final games last term, Gladbach ran out 3-1 winners against Mainz at Borussia-Park. Christoph Kramer (pictured here) scored the third and final goal, he'll be hoping for a similar result today.

14:45. Possible Mainz starting XI: Karius; Brosinski, Bungert, Bell, Junior Diaz; Moritz, Geis, Baumgartlinger; Djuricic, Hofmann; Okazaki.

14:40. Possible Borussia Mönchengladbach starting XI: Sommer; Korb, Jantschke, Stranzl, Alvaro Dominguez; Kramer, Xhaka; Hahn, Traoré; Kruse, Raffael.

14:35. Kasper Hjulmand, speaking to mainz05.de, praised his opposite number ahead of today's clash: "You have under-taken a great development in the last four years under Favre. They play very well organised football. A very exciting football team with young players that follow a very interesting philosophy," said Hjulmand. "Gladbach are still in development like ourselves. They have a very, very good team. Very quick on the counter-attack and also possessing quality build-up play." The Dane then went on to talk about his own side: "It is very important for us that we continue to play with great confidence in our own game. But there are opportunities for change in our defensive play. In the coming weeks and months it comes to our position play, as we start to develop." The Mainz boss was unbeat about their chances today: "if we create a top performance, we have a chance. Even in Gladbach." Director Christian Heidel was also very pleased with his their to the season: "Mainz are fourth after six games, how could one get the idea that the glass is half empty? But we now must also not fall into euphoria, because we know that the season is not yet finished."

14:30. Mainz have a series of injury worries ahead of today's game: Nikolce Noveski, Ja-Cheol Koo, Philipp Wollscheid and are all out of the game, but Park is missing due to winning the Asia Games with South Korea. Shinji Okazaki has returned to team training and will be fit to lead the line.

14:25. Doubts over Christoph Kramer, Fabian Johnson and Raffael should be just that and all should be fit to play today. Meaning that Lucien Favre will have a full squad to choose from, even with Europa League commitments on the side.

14:20. Here is the Bundesliga table to date:

14:15. Check out the preview of today's game, written by Ben Johnson, here.

14:10. “We’ll rotate things again, we have to do that. We’re at our absolute limit with the workload.” said Favre, who was feeling the strain of balancing Europe and domestic commitments: “Christoph has trained individually today (Friday). It looks fairly good but we have to wait on the outcome of tomorrow’s final training session,” The situation is similar with Fabian Johnson and Raffael too. “They trained as normal today but we have to wait on them too. It makes sense to put them into the line-up if they’re 100% fit.”

14:05. Only in it's tenth year of use, Borussia-Park is one of Germany's finest stadiums. Despite missing out on hosting a 2006 World Cup game, the largest stadium to do so, it did play host to the Frane 1-3 USA Women's World Cup semi-final in 2011. With a capacity of 54,057, of which 16,145 are standing places, will be bouncing come Saturday afternoon.

14:00. Bundesliga results and fixtures this weekend: Hertha Berlin 3-2 Stuttgart (Friday); Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Hamburger SV, Bayern Munich 4-0 Hannover 96, Bayer Leverkusen 2-2 SC Paderborn, 1899 Hoffenheim 2-1 Schalke 04, Werder Bremen 1-1 SC Freiburg; Eintracht Frankfurt 3-2 FC Köln (Saturday); VfL Wolfsburg-FC Augsburg, Borussia Mönchengladbach-Mainz 05 (Sunday).

13:55. “Mental and physical regeneration is important for us. We don’t have logn before out next match. It’s hard to switch our minds and we can’t simply go on holiday for a couple of days. It’s not possible to train like normal at present, only small sessions at the moment,” said 'Gladbach manager Lucien Favre, after a 1-1 draw in Zurich. His focus quickly turned to the match against Mainz: “It will be a complicated game. Mainz are definitely dangerous, that’s for sure. It’s no accident that the two sides are up there at the top of the table. They’ve improved a lot after their DFB Cup and Europa League exit. They’re well organised, sometimes play in a diamond, sometimes in a 4-4-1-1, sometimes in a 4-4-2,” said Favre, to borussia.de, the Foals boss was keen to play down expectations: “We’re not favourites. We’ve seen that recently against Paderborn and Hamburg that all games are tight.”

13:50. Today's man in the middle is Manuel Gräfe, from Berlin. In the 2010-11 season, Gräfe recieved the DFB Referee of the Year Award. On June 1, 2013 the Berliner refereed the final of the DFB Pokal between Bayern Munich and Stuttgart. This afternoon, he will be assisted by Thorsten Schniffer (Konstanz) and Guido Kleve (Köln).

13:45. Mainz enjoyed have enjoyed a mixed start to their first few months under Kasper Hjulmand. Despite beating Asteras Tripolis 1-0 in his first competitive game, subsequent loses to the Cypriot side and Chemnitzer in the DFB-Pokal left the Carnival club's fans questions the Dane's appointment. However, since then it's only got better for Hjulamnd's side. Two draws, against Hannover and Paderborn, were followed up with fantastic wins in Berlin and at home to Dortmund. A draw in the derby and an impressive point last Friday against Hoffenheim mean that they are sitting pretty and are ready to try to achieve European football once more.

13:40. Borussia Mönchengladbach have been in inspired form this season. Unbeaten domestically and in Europe, Lucien Favre's foals were sitting in second place of ahead of this weekend's games. While it's been an unspectacular start to their Europa league group - two draws against Villarreal and Zurich - they've been on a hot streak at home. Three wins and three draws, including a 4-1 demolition of Schalke, mean that they are unbeaten going into this game. Another win against FC Homburg in the DFB Pokal has set them up for an exciting encounter with Eintracht Frankfurt in the next round.

13:35. Today's game sees the aforementioned sides play each other for the first time this season. Scheduled for Sunday, in advance, to accomadate for their Europa League commitments. However after Mainz went out of the first hurdle, they've had a full week to prepare for the game. Meanwhile Gladbach were in Zurich on Thursday, so today's tie will be a test of their strength in depth more than anything else.

13:30. Hello and welcome to VAVEL's LIVE coverage of Mainz's trip to face Borussia Mönchengladbach, the final game of Bundesliga Matchday 7; with match commentary from myself, Jonathan Walsh. Kick-off is at 16:30BST.

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About the author
Jonathan Walsh
SoccerSight IFA commentator. VAVEL deputy editor-in-chief/VAVEL Bundesliga editor-in-chief and writer. Email: [email protected]