The penultimate matchday of the Bundesliga season began with Eintracht Frankfurt’s European chances taking a dent after a 3-2 loss to Borussia Dortmund on Friday night.
Saturday in the Bundesliga saw: Stuttgart vs Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig vs St.Pauli, Hoffenheim vs Werder Bremen and Augsburg vs Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Here are the three things we learnt:
RB Leipzig secure Champions League football:
After a year away from European football, Leipzig have secured their return to the Champions League with a 2-1 win against St.Pauli.
It was a relatively easy performance for Ole Werner’s side, with Xaver Schlager opening the scoring in his final home game for the club just before half-time. Then, just after the break, Willi Orban made it 2-0. Right at the end of the game, St.Pauli would score what proved to be a consolation goal.
The result means that Leipzig are guaranteed third place following the other results of today, too.
Considering the major overhaul they went under in the summer, and the relative inexperience at this level of both the players brought in and the head coach, it has been an impressive Bundesliga campaign from those at the Red Bull Arena. While they will more than likely not be near challenging for a title soon, it will be interesting to see the development of this team, especially if Yan Diomande stays another season.
Stuttgart take a big step towards the Champions League:
With Leipzig securing third, there is now only one UCL place to be fought between three teams heading into the final day of the season:
Hoffenheim, Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen.
The team that will go into the last game of the season in pole position (fourth) will be Stuttgart after a convincing 3-1 win against Leverkusen. Despite going down within the first minute, Sebastian Hoeneß’s side rallied and equalised within four minutes from Ermedin Demirovic before Maximilian Mittelstädt and Deniz Undav both scored either side of half-time.
Hoffenheim also beat Werder Bremen 1-0, meaning they will be level on points with Stuttgart on the final day, while Leverkusen now find themselves trailing by three points and with a goal difference only better than Hoffenheim. Meaning, they can only finish as high as fifth, unless they better Stuttgart’s result on the final day by two goals.
On the final day, Stuttgart play Eintracht Frankfurt, and Hoffenheim are away at Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen host Hamburg.
The Bundesliga relegation fight will likely go down to the final day:
With Werder Bremen losing to Hoffenheim and St.Pauli also losing to RB Leipzig, it means that the fight for Bundesliga survival will likely go down to the final day.
Obviously, Wolfsburg still need to play (they play Bayern, I am writing them off already), and Heidenheim play 1.FC Köln tomorrow.
But, with the form of all these teams, I am confident to say that the game between St.Pauli and Wolfsburg will at least be a shootout to see who makes it into the Bundesliga relegation playoff. But, if Heidenheim also win, it will make the final day very messy, and very fun for the neutral.
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