By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
This weekend marks the final matches of the 2020/21 Bundesliga season. While the UEFA Champions League and Europa League places may be decided, qualification for the new UEFA Europa Conference League is still being contested. The battle to avoid relegation will also go down to the wire.
As is tradition, all nine matches will take place on Saturday at 3.30pm CEST time.
Champions FC Bayern München will lift their 30th Meisterschale in the Bundesliga, following their final game of the campaign against FC Augsburg at the Allianz Arena. It will also be a final goodbye for three legendary Bayern players, as Javi Martinez, David Alaba and Jerome Boateng all play their final matches for the club.
With the title clinched, Bayern’s focus will be on helping Robert Lewandowski break Gerd Müller’s 40-goal season scoring record, which the Pole equalled last weekend in the 2-2 draw at SC Freiburg. Sat on 40 goals, Lewandowski needs just one more to break the record which has stood for almost 50 years.
Second-placed RB Leipzig travel to face 1.FC Union Berlin, who are in pole position to progress into the new Europa Conference League. Union are currently in seventh, which means they will qualify for the Europa Conference League if things remain as they are. Qualification would mark a stunning return to European competition for the first time since 2001.
Eighth-placed Borussia Mönchengladbach and ninth-placed VfL Stuttgart will be hoping the capital club drop points to give them any chance of moving ahead of Union and qualifying for the new European competition themselves. However, their opponents have it all to play for, with their Bundesliga status still on the line. SV Werder Bremen will be hoping to secure points and avoid a relegation spot when they host Mönchengladbach. A win for VfB Stuttgart could also clinch a highly coveted European place as they face DSC Arminia Bielefeld.
For Bremen and Bielefeld, the task at hand is much more threatening. Bremen currently sit in the relegation play-off spot of 16th, one point behind Bielefeld who are safe as things stand. FC Schalke 04 are already confirmed as relegated, but they face 17th placed 1.FC Köln on the final day, who are just a single point behind Bremen. However, factoring in Bremen’s significant goal difference advantage, Koln will have to take all three points to stand any chance of remaining in the top flight.
One of those three teams will automatically be relegated, with one set to play in the relegation play-off against either VfL Bochum, Holstein Kiel or SpVgg Greuther Fürth from Bundesliga 2.
SC Freiburg could also reach the Europa Conference League but need a host of good fortune and results to go their way – including beating Eintracht Frankfurt – for them to clinch that spot.
Elsewhere, Dortmund host Bayer 04 Leverkusen, while the VfL Wolfsburg welcome 1.FSV Mainz 05 whose remarkable form since the arrival of head coach Bo Svensson has seen their safety confirmed with one game to play. A mid-table battle between TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and Hertha BSC Berlin rounds off the season’s action in what is sure to be a dramatic and enthralling final day.
