Mainz 05 cruise past Werder Bremen

Mainz 05 have produced a dominant first half to thrash Werder Bremen 3-0 and continue their push for European football next season.

The home side got off to the perfect start after just five minutes as Nils Petersen turned the ball into his own net from a corner to give Mainz the lead.

Mainz continued to attack and could have had a second before 10 minutes were up. Johannes Geis had an effort saved before Shinji Okazaki planted a header wide when well placed in the box.

However, on 16 minutes they did get the second goal that they deserved when Christoph Moritz fired high from a tight angle on the right side of the box.

Then with five minutes of the first half to play, Yunus Malli added a third when he slid the ball home having been played through by Zdenek Pospech.

In the second half Mainz peppered the away goal with shots, but the closest they came to extending their lead was through Maxim Choupo-Moting's off-target header.