Mainz 05 have kept their European hopes alive with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Hannover this evening.
The hosts were comfortable either side of Yunus Malli's fine finish before Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting added a second in injury time.
Mainz started well and had their opponents chasing the ball around the pitch early on. The frustration was too much for Christian Schulz, who was lucky to receive only a yellow card for a dangerous tackle on Junior Diaz.
Nicolai Muller and Benedikt Saller both had good chances to put Mainz in front during the first 45 minutes, but both failed to test the goalkeeper. It was actually Hannover who had the best chance of the half, but Loris Karius thwarted Leonardo Bittencourt from inside the box.
The hosts took the lead early in the second half though, when Malli raced onto Muller's pass and calmly stroked the ball beyond the goalkeeper.
They continued to push forward through substitute Choupo-Moting, who raced clear of the Hannover defence on several occasions only to be denied by Ron-Robert Zieler.
Hannover finally started to push forward after that but it was Mainz who went closest again when Niki Zimling let fly from 35-yards out, only to see his shot expertly tipped wide by Zieler.
Substitute Ja Cheol Koo then failed to hit the target for Mainz in the last minute after being well picked out by Muller, but it didn't matter as the hosts doubled their lead with the last kick of the game when Choupo-Moting capped a nice move with an easy tap-in.
Daniel Cross
