In the end, the last hope of staying in the class was as small as it was very far away. It was 315 kilometers away. Bochum’s 4-1 defeat in Bremen was already sealed, but there were still a few minutes to play in Berlin – and 1. FC Union was leading 2-1 against SC Freiburg. Freiburg would have needed an equaliser, then VfL Bochum would have been saved despite their defeat in Bremen.
But this equalization never came. So Union remains fourth from last in the Bundesliga, while Bochum – tied on points but with a worse goal difference – has to go into relegation as third from last. Next Thursday they will host Fortuna Düsseldorf, third in the second division, for the first leg in the Ruhrstadion. The following Monday they have to play the second leg on the Rhine.
The tired faces and empty looks of the Bochum team on Saturday after the final whistle in Bremen raised doubts as to whether this team would be able to get involved in the fight for the league again in a few days. And the drastic words after the 4-1 defeat in Bremen also spoke volumes. “That was a terrible performance,” said sports director Marc Lettau dry as dust on Sky. “We failed!” complained captain Antony Losilla. “I’m really angry!” complained playmaker Kevin Stöger: “We go into the matchday with the best starting position and then deliver such a poor performance – that’s unacceptable and every player has to question themselves.”
A draw would have been enough for Bochum to secure their place in the league on their own. Instead, they let themselves be torn apart by Bremen, who were, however, driven by the prospect of eighth place and the very likely associated participation in the Conference League. Despite the 4-1 win, Bremen missed out on this placement due to the poorer goal difference. As ninth, they no longer have a chance of the European Cup. Eighth is now the promoted team 1. FC Heidenheim, which is two goals better.
Union converted a penalty late on – and that’s why Bochum now has to go into relegation
Bochum’s final league game was an emotional roller coaster ride. Until then they were only 0-1 behind (Marco Friedl, 6th minute), but in the 69th minute the news came from Berlin that Union had taken the lead 1-0. At that moment, the Bochum team were third from last for the time being, but didn’t rebel enough – and instead soon conceded 0:2 (Anthony Jung, 78th) and 0:3 (Jens Stage, 80th). At about the same time as Christopher Antwi-Adjei’s actually meaningless Bochum goal to make it 1-3 (85th), Freiburg equalized to make it 1-1 in Berlin.
The Bochum fans in Bremen now cheered exuberantly, and Bremen’s goal to make the final score 4-1 (Romano Schmid, 87th) did not initially destroy this hope. But just as the second minute of stoppage time was running in the Weser Stadium, the Union team scored the 2-1 winning goal 315 kilometers further east against Freiburg – with a follow-up shot after a penalty that had already been missed. And that’s why Bochum now has to go into relegation.
They had imagined things differently when they fired their coach Thomas Letsch at the beginning of April, six game days before the end of the season, and replaced them with A-youth coach Heiko Butscher. Hope arose when VfL won 3-2 against Hoffenheim on the fourth-to-last matchday and 4-3 at Union Berlin on the third-to-last matchday, but on the last two matchdays a 0-5 against Leverkusen and now this 1-4 in Bremen destroyed the last hopes on direct class retention.
Bochum got 23 of its 33 points at home in the Ruhrstadion and only ten away. And with 42:74 goals, only the bottom of the table, Darmstadt, has a worse goal difference (30:86) and has conceded more goals in its balance sheet. In the relegation against Düsseldorf, VfL Bochum is now threatened with the seventh Bundesliga relegation in its history. Only Arminia Bielefeld (eight) and 1. FC Nürnberg (nine) have more.