Mainz breathed new life into the Bundesliga title race with a 2-1 victory at Bayern Munich on Wednesday, and boss Martin Schmidt said they had made the situation "a little bit more interesting."
Despite having more than 72 percent of possession and 16 shots to five from Mainz, Bayern suffered their first home defeat of the season.
Jhon Cordoba scored the winner four minutes from time, with the result coming as second-placed Borussia Dortmund cruised to a 2-0 win at Darmstadt.
And the drama means that, ahead of BVB and Bayern's meeting at the Westfalenstadion on Saturday, the gap between the two teams is down to five points.
Schmidt told his postmatch news conference: "I met the boys on Monday morning and we all wanted to take the next step. We only ever talked about winning here.
"We knew that we wouldn't have all the possession. We had a plan, and we knew it would only come off if we gave it our all. We wanted to write our own chapter today."
Bayern had entered the week hoping to end the title race with wins at Wolfsburg, against Mainz and at the Westfalenstadion -- but could now face a battle until the end of the season.
"We have been eight points ahead of Dortmund for a long time. That's not the problem," CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told Sport1.
"Maybe one or two players were already thinking ahead to Saturday and believed the job against Mainz was already done. A lot of things went wrong."
He said Bayern were "not allowed to lose" on Saturday and added: "I hope we can do a better job than today."
Mainz are now in a good position to challenge for European qualification -- and their win freshened up the Bundesliga, which has been dominated by Bayern since Dortmund's back-to-back championships under Jurgen Klopp in 2011 and 2012.
"I am pleased that we have made the fight for the title that little bit more interesting," Schmidt said.
On Twitter, Mainz addressed former boss Thomas Tuchel, now in charge at Dortmund, saying it was "over to you" in the title race.
Over to you, Thomas Tuchel �� #FCBM05 pic.twitter.com/ajuPLkeZOs
- 1. FSV Mainz 05 (@Mainz05en) March 2, 2016
Meanwhile, Klopp laughed out loud during a TV interview following his Liverpool side's 3-0 defeat of Manchester City. "I heard Bayern lost," he said. "Ha ha ha ha!"