On Saturday, when the atmosphere in the empty arena was tense, two FC Bayern employees ran towards the ball who are not employed for the race.

The Bundesliga game between Munich and Mainz was almost 40 minutes over when the ball rolled out in front of Bayern's bank and Julian Nagelsmann and Hasan Salihamidžić, coach and sports director, chased him with quick steps.

Christopher Meltzer

Sports correspondent in Munich.

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And although the coach had a small head start, it was the sports director who grabbed it and immediately gave it to Alphonso Davies, who was supposed to throw it in.

That did not lead to the counterattack that Nagelsmann and Salihamidžić had wished for, but one thing could be interpreted in their race in winter jackets: They felt that their players needed a boost.

On Saturday, when the atmosphere in the empty arena was no longer tense, Nagelsmann and Salihamidžić walked along the sidelines and clapped their players.

And you didn't have to interpret at that moment to be able to determine: They were happy about the boost their team had received in the championship.

On matchday 15, FC Bayern turned a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 win in a close fight against FSV Mainz 05 - and a four-point win in a long-range fight against Dortmund (1: 1 in Bochum) into a six -Points lead.

"We showed a great reaction," said Julian Nagelsmann, who scored his 100th Bundesliga victory as a coach because of the goals from Kingsley Coman (53rd minute) and Jamal Musiala (74th).

In the days before the game, Nagelsmann and his 100-victory mark were not talked about, but rather about his colleague from Mainz.

In his first 34 games as a coach in Mainz, Bo Svensson scored 54 points.

Only Munich, Dortmund, Frankfurt and Wolfsburg got more.

Svensson has formed a team that can defend very skillfully - and attack with great speed.

First and foremost, with Jonathan Burkardt and Karim Onisowo whirling.

It was these strikers who created a tense atmosphere in the empty arena in Munich.

The German U21 international was able to cross the ball unrestrictedly to the six-yard box, while the Austrian national player was able to head it into the goal even more undisturbed.

That was in the 22nd minute.

And because it was still 0-0 in Dortmund at the time, board member Oliver Kahn and president Herbert Hainer looked a bit tense.

"It is clearly a penalty"

They should have been even more tense if the referee had judged a contact between Dayot Upamecano and Jae-sung Lee in the penalty area as a foul.

He didn't look at the scene on the screen, but probably trusted what his video assistant whispered in his ear.

That bothered Svensson in particular, who said in the press conference: “When we have people who look at it again and see that he gets hit in the foot and falls. I don't understand that you don't give a penalty without the referee looking at it. It's not a difficult scene to evaluate. It is clearly a penalty. "

But there was no penalty - and so Munich only had to catch up one goal in the second half.

And when you write Munich, on the day on which the drivers Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich (lung infiltration after Covid 19 infection) were missing, Kingsley Coman in particular was meant.

In the 49th minute he headed the ball into the arms of Mainz goalkeeper Robin Zentner.

In the 61st minute he slammed him over the gate.

But in between, in the 53rd minute, he had shot the ball through the legs of Hundreds.

That was a fine goal - and an almost even finer assist by his French compatriot Corentin Tollisso, who cleared it with a flying ball.

"That was too cheap," said Svensson.

And so what had to follow followed: In the 74th minute, Jamal Musiala decided the game with a low shot.