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Mainz climbed into third place in the Bundesliga with a 3-1 win at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday.
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The result takes Bo Henriksen’s charges to 44 points, provisionally two ahead of Eintracht Frankfurt in fourth place.
Goals shortly before and after the half-time interval from Paul Nebel and Dominik Kohr put Mainz in the driving seat.
Stefan Lainer pulled one back for the hosts in the final 20 minutes but Nadiem Amiri swiftly restored Mainz’s two-goal lead to earn them their fourth league victory in their last five outings.
“It was a deserved win for us over 90 minutes,” Kohr told DAZN.
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“We’re happy where we are. We have 44 points, what a feeling. The way we play football, we belong up there.”
Mainz boast a four-point buffer to Freiburg, who lie just outside the Champions League spots in fifth and face sixth-placed RB Leipzig on Saturday.
With nine games to go, Mainz are seeking to earn European football for the first time since their 2016-17 group stage appearance in the Europa League.
And with Friday’s result, they firmly have their eyes set on reaching the continent’s top club competition for the very first time in their 120-year history.
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Defeat leaves Moenchengladbach in eighth place on 37 points, one shy of Leipzig in the final European spot.
Eintracht will have the chance to leapfrog Mainz back into third when they host lowly Union Berlin on Sunday.
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