By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The 2021/22 Bundesliga season rolls into its final Matchday this weekend and, while FC Bayern München have been crowned champions and SpVgg Greuther Fürth have fallen through the trap door, there is still plenty to play for when it comes to the European spots, relegation berths and promotion places on Matchday 34.
With Bayern already wrapping up a 10th successive title and Borussia Dortmund and Bayer 04 Leverkusen clinching second and third respectively, it now remains for the remaining European qualification to be distributed among RB Leipzig, SC Freiburg, 1. FC Union Berlin and 1. FC Köln.
Leipzig will begin the day in the final UEFA Champions League place, two points ahead of Freburg and with a far superior goal difference, meaning a point at Arminia Bielefeld should be enough to secure fourth. Any defeat for Domenico Tedesco’s side would allow Freiburg to leapfrog Leipzig into fourth if they can win at Leverkusen.
And there will be no gimmies at Bielefeld, where the hosts will make one final play at trying to avoid automatic relegation. They are second-bottom, three points back from VfB Stuttgart in the relegation playoff place and in need of a huge amount of luck.
To avoid slipping back down to the second-tier, Bielefeld require all of; a victory over Leipzig, a VfB defeat, and an eight-goal swing in their respective goal differences.
VfB are a further three points behind Hertha Berlin, who can confirm their top-flight place for next season with a point at Dortmund.
Stuttgart welcome Cologne to the Mercedes Benz Arena on Saturday, with the visitors looking to upgrade their European qualification from the UEFA Conference League into the Europa League.
The Billy Goats are guaranteed of the former and have an outside chance of the latter if they can pair a big win with a big Freiburg defeat, with three points the difference between sixth and fifth.
Between them sits Union who trail Freiburg by a point and lead Union by two. Like Cologne, they are currently entering the Europa Conference League play-off rounds but a win over VfL Bochum 1848 could also lift them into the Europa League if Freiburg slip up.
Elsewhere on Matchday 34 – where all nine games kick-off at 3.30pm CEST – Bayern travel to VfL Wolfsburg, Borussia Mönchengladbach host TSG Hoffenheim, and 1. FSV Mainz 05 take on Fürth.
And the action doesn’t stop there, with Bundesliga 2 taking over on Sunday and the promotion places up in the air.
FC Schalke 04 are up and, with a two-point gap to second, victory at 1. FC Nürnberg would guarantee them the title.
It’s SV Werder Bremen that currently occupy the second automatic promotion place and a point at home to SSV Jahn Regensburg will be enough for Ole Werner’s team to rubber stamp their return to the top-flight.
Defeat, however, would open the door for both third-place Hamburger SV and SV Darmstadt 98 to sneak into second as both teams – within a win of Werder and facing F.C. Hansa Rostock and SC Paderborn 07, respectively – boast a better goal difference.
Despite how close that trio are to promotion heading into the final weekend, one of them will drop out of the running entirely – not only from an automatic place in the top-tier but also a promotion/relegation playoff place against Hertha, Stuttgart or Bielefeld.
One week to go and everything to play for; football as it’s meant to be.