In a battle of two struggling sides at the Coface Arena in Mainz, Hertha came to town and ran away with all three points as they won by two goals.
Mainz started out brightly and in the thrid minute of the match, Pierre Bengtsson let fly from a very difficult angle and from just outside the box, but Kraft was able to save the shot. Johannes Greis was up next, eleven minutes later as a number of fouls slowed the game down a bit, and his shot from 25 yards away missed badly to the right of the target. These would be the only two shots of the first 45 minutes frot the home club as Hertha would take the match over after they got settled in.
A minute later, Roy Beerens had a right footed shot miss to the left of the goal, not really troubling Loris Karius. Then they pressured Mainz's back four, and often. Julian Schieber, Peter Pekarik, and Per Skjelbred all had shots that missed, but it was a good sign as Hertha was getting into attacking positions. In the 28th minute, American John Anthony Brooks had a header saved saved from right around the penalty spot, but he couldn't quite get enough power behind his shot. Loris Karius was sent off in the 32nd minute for bringing down Valentin Stocker inside of the box. Beerens stepped up to the stop and placed it in behind Kapino giving the visitors an early 0-1 lead.
Hertha were not done yet. Valentin Stocker hit the post from from the left side of the box, nearly doubling their lead. They would get the second goal of the match, however, as Roy Beerens tapped the ball into the back of the net after the Mainz defense failed to clear their lines. It all looked too easy for the capital club playijng against ten men and it would continue into the second half.
It would take about five minutes before the first shot of the second half came in and it would be Mainz as Pablo de Blasis got his head on the ball following a free kick. Nico Schulz had a go three minutes later, but his shot was blocked. Fabian Lustenberger would be sent off in the 58th minute for getting his second yellow card in the span of four minutes as the sides were back to being even with ten men on the pitch for each. That didn't really seem to effect them though, as Stocker goes close to scoring again but his shot, just past the hour mark, misses inches wide to the left.
Somehow, in the 68th minute, Shinji Okazaki had a fantastic look at goal from the middle of the box, but the ball missed the target completely. With 17 minutes left to go, Bengtsson got a clean strike off from just outside the box, but his shot fell straight into the hands of Kraft. As the time was slowly winding down, Stefan Bell had a center from the middle of the area miss just to the left of the target. In the final minute of regular time, Niko Bungert had a shot from inside of the six yard box saved well by Kraft, in what surely would have been just a consolation prize for the hosts.