Bundesliga relegation battle
Four winners, two losers and a lot of hope
Suat Serdar (lr), head coach Pal Dardai, Dodi Lukebakio, Stevan Jovetic and Filip Uremovic are happy: Is Hertha also celebrating at the end of the season? photo
© Soeren Stache/dpa
The fight against relegation from the Bundesliga is coming to a head – also because those who have already been written off are suddenly winning. Nine points are still up for grabs.
The simple Berlin calculation was even easier for Pal Dardai in the morning after the effort against relegation. Three wins in three games, the Hertha coach said on Sunday, and the crisis club, which was recently written off to the second division, might even be saved directly.
It’s just that simple mathematics in the Bundesliga is such a thing, the results of this 31st game day at the bottom of the table were not necessarily to be expected.
The winners
Four of the six clubs in the bottom third celebrated victories, some of which were quite surprising. FC Augsburg in 13th place can feel like winners of winners after beating Champions League contenders 1. FC Union Berlin 1-0. “It wasn’t salvation yet,” warned manager Stefan Reuter. With a six-point lead over the relegation place, that should have been it for FCA. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, in 14th place, has four points more than 16th VfB Stuttgart thanks to the 3-1 win over the cup finalist Eintracht Frankfurt. Here, too, the reticence in the wording: “We have taken a big step, but it’s not over yet,” said Christoph Baumgartner.
The fans of the new Table 15. FC Schalke 04 probably celebrated the 3:2 on Friday in Mainz on Sunday. Just like the Hertha supporters the 2:1 on Saturday against Stuttgart. Both victories were initially good for the feeling – at Hertha because of the still depressing place in the table, at the Royal Blues because of the tough remaining program, which continues with the game at FC Bayern Munich on the next matchday.
“We haven’t achieved anything yet. Except that we’re still in the race to stay up,” said Schalke coach Thomas Reis. “We know, however, that we still have to go a step further and score more points.” In Berlin, Dardai explained: “You still have to win two of three games, then you might be in the relegation.” His team “worked out a minimal chance” and: “If you win three, you might stay in the league.” The match against the currently penultimate VfL Bochum on the penultimate match day promises great excitement.
The losers
The mood at the Revierclub fluctuated between defiance and pure desperation on Saturday afternoon after the 2-0 defeat at Borussia Mönchengladbach. “It’s not just about us, it’s about the club, the staff and the whole city,” said a bitterly disappointed captain Anthony Losilla. “We can only do it if we play with passion. I still believe in it, but it’s a matter of the head.” Nobody lost faith in Stuttgart, even if the fall on the relegation place in Berlin was painful. “For us, this is a result that hurts, but will not knock us down,” said coach Sebastian Hoeneß, who is about to meet again that fits perfectly into the Bundesliga script.
The rest of the program
The 40-year-old has only been the Swabian coach since April, until the end of last season he was a trainer at TSG, which Stuttgart meets on the last day of the game. Since the beginning of February, Hoffenheim’s coach has been Pellegrino Matarazzo, who had to leave Stuttgart in October due to lack of success. Who shoots whom in the 2nd league? The Kraichgauers could have been saved long ago.
On the coming match day, Bochum will have to stand up to FC Augsburg, who can also mathematically make it a perfect place to stay in the league. “We now want to put the lid on in Bochum,” said FCA goalkeeper Tomas Koubek. An Augsburg victory would also benefit FC Schalke. After the trip to Bayern, the Royal Blues have to play against Frankfurt and RB Leipzig. That reads much more exhausting than the games played by Hertha, which travels to 1. FC Köln before the Bochum game and is a guest at VfL Wolfsburg at the end.