Grimaldo seals 10th straight win for Leverkusen
Defending Bundesliga champion Bayer Leverkusen edged out Mainz to win 1-0 in a tight encounter to earn its seventh straight league victory and 10th in all competitions thanks to Alex Grimaldo's brilliant free-kick.
Grimaldo's strike came at the beginning of the second half and keeps Leverkusen second on the table, one point behind current leader Bayern Munich.
The visitors, meanwhile, are fifth on the table and trail Leverkusen by 10 points after this defeat.
Mainz had to recover from an early setback, with captain Jonathan Burkardt suffering an injury in the third minute on his comeback after having been injured at the weekend.
Despite that, Mainz held on to keep things goalless at half-time. But just three minutes into the second period, Grimaldo settled things with a moment of real quality.
The Brazilian curled his free kick over the wall and past the helpless Robin Zentner in the Mainz goal.
After the victory, Xabi Alonso's side is on 38 points from 17 matches, with Bayern Munich's game in hand coming against Hoffenheim on Thursday (AEDT).
Leverkusen's run of form is beginning to look ominous.
During it's 10-game winning sequence, Alonso's side has kept five clean sheets and also beaten Bayern Munich in the DFB-Pokal and Borussia Dortmund in the league.
Here, it was comfortable, restricting its opposition to just 0.72 xG compared to its own 1.76.
