On Magpies
It’s worth the pain in Mainz, says Toon boss
Stefan Bell should have doubled the home side’s lead shortly afterwards but he dragged his effort wide of the target.
Newcastle made their first change of the game on 27 minutes when Javier Manquillo replaced DeAndre Yedlin.
In sweltering conditions, the Magpies struggled to create any clear-cut chances and with the temperature soaring in the first half, the referee called for a water break.
Mitrovic then tried a shot from 35 yards but it lacked power and it was easily gathered by Adler.
Mainz went in at the break with the lead after a below-par performance from the Magpies in Germany.
There were changes at the break with Jesus Gamez replacing Dummett, Chancel Mbemba coming on for Ciaran Clark and Rolando Aarons taking over from Ritchie wide on the right.
Aarons had a shot blocked in the opening seconds after coming off the bench before Gamez’s curling long-range effort was gathered by Adler.
Mainz attacked again on 52 minutes and after Darlow had punched away a corner, the ball dropped for Daniel Brosinski but his dipping volley flashed just wide.
United made a host of changes on the hour with Diame, Darlow, Murphy, Mitrovic, Colback and De Jong replaced by Jonjo Shelvey, Freddie Woodman, Isaac Hayden, Dwight Gayle, Ayoze Perez and Christian Atsu.
Newcastle drew level with 25 minutes to go after good work from Christian Atsu and Ayoze Perez, the ball dropping kindly for Gamez.
The full-back’s shot was then deflected towards goal before sub goalkeeper Robin Zentner misjudged the bounce of the ball and could only watch as it hit the net.
Three minutes later, Gayle won a free-kick before curling it high over the bar as Newcastle started to pose some questions of the Mainz defence.
Woodman was called into action on 73 minutes when Viktor Fischer’s powerful effort was pushed over the bar with the England youth international making a quality save that even drew applause from the Mainz fans.
With 10 minutes to go, Benitez handed Mikel Merino his debut for the Magpies with the Spaniard replacing Florian Lejeune at centreback.
Newcastle forced an opening soon after with Atsu crossing for Perez but his header was high and wide.
Fischer made it 2-1 with seven minutes remaining when Suat Serdar played the ball his way and the ex-Middlesbrough man hammered it beyond Woodman.
Tempers flared at the final whistle as Shelvey confronted Mainz players but the coaches from both sides cooled things down on what had been an energysapping afternoon. RAFA Benitez believes Newcastle United’s workout in sweltering Germany proved to be a worthwhile exercise - despite a 2-1 loss to Bundesliga outfit Mainz 05.
The Toon boss lost his first game of pre-season against Sandro Schwarz’s men but wasn’t too concerned about the result.
Speaking directly after the defeat to Mainz, Benitez said: “It’s a pre-season game, when you play these type of games all you want is to improve the fitness of the team. You want to be sure everybody understands what we want to do.
“I think we started well in terms of organisation and pressing but then we didn’t regain properly, gave them a chance to counter attack and then score.
“It’s something we can improve. At the same time we had some good play and sometimes did well, sometimes not so well.
“That is pre-season for you. We had to adjust things and in the second half we had more pace and more intensity.
“Overall it’s a pre-season game that you have to consider was positive in a lot of things. Even the bad things give us something to work with. You can see that and we can improve and prepare the team a little bit better for the Premier League.”
Benitez was able to give a debut to Mikel Merino against Mainz with the new boy coming on for the last 10 minutes just days after joining from Borussia Dortmund.
He added: “It is important to have new players and using all of the players in friendly games. “The players need to understand each other a little better but that is
pre-season.”