LIVERPOOL-BOUND NABY KEITA was sent off for the fourth time this season as 10-man RB Leipzig crashed to a shock 3-0 Bundesliga defeat to Mainz on Sunday.
Keita, who will join Liverpool in the summer, was shown a yellow card, then a red in quick succession late on for fouling Mainz scorers Alexandru Maxim and Bote Baku.
“That was completely unnecessary,” Leipzig’s captain Willi Orban fumed about Keita’s dismissal. The 23-year-old Keita stormed off the pitch and will be suspended for Saturday’s home match against Wolfsburg.
It was the defensive midfielder’s third expulsion for Leipzig in 2017/18. He was also sent off for Guinea in a World Cup qualifier against Tunisia, the first of two red cards he earned last October before being dismissed in Leipzig’s German Cup defeat to Bayern Munich.
This was Leipzig’s fifth game without a win and leaves them sixth in the table, just hanging on to a Europa League berth.
Mainz boosted their survival hopes as Maxim and Baku hit late goals after Pablo de Blasis netted a first-half penalty. Victory lifted Mainz out of the bottom three and into 14th with a three-point buffer from the relegation places.
