By Rich

​The Bundesliga season ends this weekend, and although FC Bayern München have already won their 8th consecutive league title, qualification for the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League is still in contention, and several clubs in both the 1. Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga are looking at relegation or promotion. Bayern and Dortmund have already secured spots in the Champions League, and Leipzig, Gladbach, and Leverkusen are still in contention for the remaining 2 spots for the group stage. Although Leverkusen could still mathematically catch up to Leipzig on points, Leipzig’s superior goal differential has all but assured them a spot. Gladbach could secure their spot with a win on Saturday over Hertha, and even a draw would probably suffice, as Leverkusen would otherwise need to defeat Mainz by at least 9 goals. In the Europa League, final positions are still to be allocated among Gladbach, Leverkusen, Wolfsburg, and Hoffenheim. 7th place could ultimately be decided between Wolfsburg and Hoffenheim on goal differential. The teams with nothing to play for on Saturday other than their final positions in the table are Freiburg, Frankfurt, Hertha, Schalke, Union Berlin, Mainz, Köln, and Augsburg. At the bottom of the table, Paderborn have already secured relegation, while the relegation play-off and automatic relegation spots are still to be decided between Düsseldorf and Bremen. Bremen must win at home against Köln to even have a chance at the relegation play-off spot, and such a play-off could produce an exciting derby against Hamburg. Bremen would then also need a Düsseldorf loss away at Union Berlin. Should Düsseldorf draw in their match, Bremen would need to beat Köln by at least 4 goals. Otherwise, a Düsseldorf win means Bremen is automatically relegated. In the 2. Bundesliga, Bielefeld has already secured promotion to the 1. Bundesliga next season. Stuttgart, currently in 2nd place and with an 11-goal lead over Heidenheim, is all but assured promotion. This leaves the promotion play-off spot in contention between Heidenheim and Hamburg. In the final matchday on Sunday, Heidenheim will play away against league champions Bielefeld. A win, assuming they do not overcome the goal differential against Stuttgart, will clinch the promotion play-off spot. Heidenheim are undefeated in their last 6 matches with Bielefeld, and have only lost 2 of the 13 total matches between the 2 clubs. Hamburg, who will host Sandhausen on Sunday, would need Heidenheim to lose against Bielefeld, in which case a draw against Sandhausen would clinch Hamburg the promotion play-off spot. Should Heidenheim draw against Bielefeld, Hamburg would have to win over Sandhausen. Hamburg have won 2 of their 3 total matches against Sandhausen. The relegation matches between the 1. and 2. Bundesliga are scheduled for July 2nd (when the 16th-place finisher in the 1. Bundesliga hosts the 3rd-place finisher in the 2. Bundesliga) and July 6th (when 3rd place in the 2. hosts 16th place in the 1.).

By Rich

​Earlier this week, FC Bayern München claimed their 8th consecutive Bundesliga title, and 29th title overall, thanks to Robert Lewandowski’s 31st goal of the season. As the league heads into the final 2 matchdays, the attention turns to the other end of the table, to qualification for Europe competition, and to the clubs in contention for promotion to the 1. Bundesliga from the 2. Bundesliga. Paderborn have already earned relegation to the 2. Bundesliga, while Mainz, Düsseldorf, and Bremen are still in relegation danger. Thanks to a 2:0 win over Dortmund this week, Mainz are currently holding a 5-point buffer over the relegation playoff spot, and their remaining matches are against 17th-place Bremen and 4th-place Leverkusen. Just 1 more point in their next 2 matches will keep them in the 1. Bundesliga next season, but they could even stay up without it, thanks to their superior goal differential. Düsseldorf, currently in the 16th-place relegation playoff spot, can remain in the spot as long as they do better than Bremen in the last 2 matches, and could survive outright with 6 points in 2 matches and a Mainz collapse. Their next 2 competitors, Augsburg and Union Berlin, have nothing riding on their last 2 competitions. Bremen, in 17th place, have nearly everything riding on their Saturday match against Mainz. In the 2. Bundesliga, DSC Arminia Bielefeld have already secured promotion to the 1. Bundesliga next season, for the first time since the 2008-9 season, and can also secure the 2. Bundesliga championship if they avoid defeat against Darmstadt on Matchday 32. Still in contention for promotion are Stuttgart, Hamburg, Heidenheim, and Darmstadt. Stuttgart were relegated at the end of last season and can return to the first division if they win the remaining 2 fixtures, against Nürnberg and Darmstadt. Hamburg were relegated for the first time ever at the end of the 2017-8 season, and narrowly missed the promotion play-off spot last season. Hamburg must still play Heidenheim and Sandhausen and will need a Stuttgart loss to achieve promotion. The odds are against Heidenheim, who have never played in the 1. Bundesliga, and must win at least once, and more likely twice, against Hamburg and Bielefeld. Darmstadt’s chances are just as low, with fixtures against Bielefeld, Wiesbaden, and Stuttgart, and will need wins in all 3 to have a shot at promotion. Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Mönchengladbach, VfL Wolfsburg, TSG Hoffenheim, and SC Freiburg are all still in contention for European competition. Dortmund have already clinched a spot in the Champions League group stage and will need to defeat Leipzig on Saturday to finish 2nd place in the Bundesliga. If Leipzig fail to defeat Dortmund, Leipzig will be in a 3-way contest with Leverkusen and Gladbach for the final CL spot. Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim, and Freiburg round out the competition for the Europa League spots, but Hoffenheim and Freiburg would both have to move into at least 6th place in the table.

By Rich

​Two early goals on Friday from Spanish midfielder Dani Olmo propelled RB Leipzig to a 2:0 victory over hosts TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Olmo’s first goal came in the 9th minute off a pass from Nordi Mukiele, and Olmo quickly followed 2 minutes later off a header by Marcel Sabitzer. The 2 goals were Olmo’s first double in the Bundesliga, and the win keeps Leipzig in contention for a top-4 finish in the waning weeks of the current season. On Saturday, Bayern München will host Borussia Mönchengladbach, and could obtain its 8th consecutive Bundesliga title. Bayern will be playing without Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Müller, who are both suspended for picking up too many yellow cards. Gladbach will also be without their top scorer, Alassane Plea, who was sent off in last Friday’s 0:1 loss to Freiburg. Nevertheless, Gladbach have won 3 of their last 5 meetings with Bayern, including a 2:1 win in the reverse fixture earlier in the season. Another important competition occurs on Saturday at the other end of the table, when SV Werder Bremen travel to SC Paderborn. The match could confirm Paderborn’s automatic relegation, should Paderborn lose to Bremen and if Fortuna Düsseldorf upset Borussia Dortmund in their match. Bremen are only 5 points ahead of Paderborn in the table and will remain in the other automatic relegation spot unless they better Fortuna’s result by at least 6 goals. Paderborn won the reverse fixture this season with a single late goal. Regardless of Saturday’s outcomes, Dortmund will remain in 2nd place in the league, and both Marco Reus and Erling Haaland returned to training this week following injuries, although only Haaland is expected to play this weekend. Dortmund’s only chance for a league title requires a Bayern loss on Saturday, as Bayern are 7 points clear, with only 12 points still in play this season. The remaining matches on Saturday feature clubs that are grouped in the middle of the table and are in each case within 1-2 matches of each other, pointwise. Of particular significance is the Union Berlin-Köln competition: Union Berlin are just 4 points ahead of the relegation playoff spot and just 7 points ahead of an automatic relegation spot, while Köln have not won in their last 7 games. On Sunday, Mainz and Augsburg will compete to remain clear of the relegation zone, and red-hot Bayer Leverkusen will anticipate the return of striker Kai Havertz when they travel to take on Schalke. Leverkusen’s win on Tuesday over Saarbrücken sent them to the DFB Pokal final against Bayern, a match that will take place on July 4. Schalke remain in 10th place despite going 12 games without a win.

By Rich

​Nils Petersen scored in less than a minute after being substituted in to drive Freiburg to a 1:0 victory over visiting Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday. The win keeps Freiburg’s hopes alive of qualifying for the UEFA Europa League. Remarkably, in the last 24 meetings of the 2 clubs, neither has lost at home: the last away win occurred back in March 2002, when Gladbach won 1:0 in Freiburg. The hunt for the league championship will continue on Saturday when Leverkusen hosts Bayern, a match that will feature 2 of the Bundesliga’s hottest strikers. Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz has scored 9 goals in just the 2nd half of the season, and after having left the pitch with an injury in the match against Freiburg last week, has been cleared to return to play. Bayern have extended their lead at the top of the table and are 7 points ahead of Dortmund, and their scoring is led by the only player to have scored more goals in the 2nd half of the season than Havertz, and that striker is Robert Lewandowski. Lewandowski needs just 11 more goals to break Gerd Müller’s 40-goal season record. Leverkusen have won their last 2 Bundesliga encounters with Bayern, but have never won 3 consecutive matches against Bayern. Later on Saturday, all eyes will be on Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho when his club hosts Hertha Berlin. Sancho is the league’s 3rd-highest scorer, and his goal tally includes his first career hat trick last Sunday against Paderborn. Sancho has also been a potent weapon for Dortmund against Hertha, having scored 3 times and tallied 3 assists in just 4 league matches with Hertha. Dortmund have won 29 of their past 65 Bundesliga meetings with Hertha, while Hertha have not won their last 5 meetings with Dortmund. Hertha’s leading goalscorer, Dodi Lukebakio, has 6 goals so far this season, but has only managed to score once in his last 8 league appearances. Competition also remains close at the bottom of the table. Paderborn, already facing near-certain relegation, is coming off a 1:6 loss to Dortmund and will travel to Leipzig on Saturday, where the league’s second-best striker, Timo Werner, will be looking to build on his 25 goals so far this season. On Sunday, Bremen will host Wolfsburg and Wolfsburg striker Wout Weghorst. Bremen are just behind Fortuna Düsseldorf and have managed to score just twice since the restart of competition, but they are unbeaten in their last 8 meetings with Wolfsburg.. Wolfsburg will be looking to remain in contention for the final European qualification spot, but that will depend on the outcome of the match between Hoffenheim and Düsseldorf.