Club Haberleri

That was the case at Deutsche Bank Park in Frankfurt. With SCF once again harbouring hopes of qualifying for the Champions League, as they had last season, they were dependent on a favourable result in the game between Union Berlin and Werder Bremen to secure qualification. Meanwhile, the Eagles were also looking to finish 6th or 7th and end up in the European places.

It has been a turbulent time for RB Leipzig. After losing away to VfL Bochum (1-0) and at home to 1. FSV Mainz 05 (3-0), Marco Rose’s team qualified for the semi-finals of the cup courtesy of a 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund before also winning their next two league games against Hertha BSC (1-0) and FC Augsburg (3-2). But RB’s 2-0 loss in Leverkusen saw them drop to fifth place, with the Werkself now close behind them. Leipzig are two points adrift of fourth-placed Freiburg and four points ahead of Leverkusen in sixth position. There will be one of two outcomes for RB Leipzig – either big success or big disappointment.

Yussuf Poulsen, Max Eberl and Christopher Nkunku react to the 4-2 win over Schalke 04

Battle of the strikers

VfB Stuttgart drew 1-1 with TSG Hoffenheim on Matchday 34 and must now contest the relegation play-off.

1. FC Union Berlin came away from the Olympic Stadium with derby bragging rights for the third time in this campaign, defeating Hertha 4-1. Urs Fischer’s produced a dominant performance to follow up on the 2-0 league win in Köpenick and the 3-2 German Cup triumph on Hertha turf. Union peppered Hertha’s box and goalkeeper Marcel Lotka was in inspired form. He was beaten by a header from Genki Haraguchi before Timo Baumgartl put the ball past Frederik Rönnow to bring the score level at the start of the second half. Grischa Prömel headed Union in front a few minutes later while Sheraldo Becker wrapped up a terrific display with a great goal to kill the contest. Sven Michel came on as a substitute and scored his first goal for the club following his January transfer from Paderborn.

When the Wolves play host to TSG Hoffenheim in their penultimate home match of the season on Saturday 13 May (kick-off: 15.30 CEST), it will be a welcome return to a more conventional start time. Four of the Green-and-Whites’ last five matches have been played on a Sunday, but now they are getting back to the traditional Bundesliga kick-off time.

The first leg will take place away in Berlin on Easter Monday (11:00 CET), while the defending champions from Dortmund will host the second leg (11:00 CET). Hertha BSC won the Bundesliga North/Northeast with 41 points from 16 games, finishing ahead of Dynamo Dresden (38) and Hamburger SV (31). BVB completed an unbeaten Bundesliga West campaign, with 37 points from 15 games. Incidentally, the last time a Dortmund U19 side suffered a Bundesliga defeat dates back to 19 November 2019 (a 2-1 loss to Fortuna Düsseldorf).

For their first away fixture of the year VfL travel to Mainz. Facing them on Saturday, and also midweek for the DFB-Pokal, VfL will be no strangers to Mainz. Here’s this week’s LOOK AHEAD on FSV Mainz 05:

Jeffrey Gouweleeuw: “It was a terrible game today. The first half was particularly bad, you’ve no chance in the Bundesliga if you play like that. We’d like to have secured our Bundesliga status ourselves, but we were unable to do so. It’s a horrible feeling to be dependent on other teams and to nervously wait for those results to come in. But at the end of the day, we survived and that’s what counts!”