On Wednesday, the remaining five matches of the German football championship were played, which concluded the 32nd round of matches. After this eventful round, two teams emerged who will have to bid farewell to the Bundesliga after this season - the "Duisburg" and "Koln" clubs. Meanwhile, the leaders of the championship, "Bayern," won their Wednesday match, restoring a five-point lead over "Hamburger" and gaining the chance to secure the league title in the next round.
Bayern's solid advantage until the end of the championship, with two rounds left, was sealed by a victory at home against "Stuttgart" with a score of 3-1. The match began unsuccessfully for the hosts, and just six minutes into the game, they had to chase their opponents when D.Ljuboja's header from a corner left unmarked beat O.Kahn and put the visitors ahead. Bayern quickly recovered and five minutes later, after receiving a pass from Lucio, R.Santa Cruz equalized the score upon returning from a long injury, while C.Pizarro scored his eleventh goal of the season just before the end of the first half, putting Bayern ahead.
In the second half, the score was made 3-1 in just the first minute, with a goal from B.Schweinsteiger from about 18 meters. The match ended with Bayern celebrating the victory and getting closer to their twentieth Bundesliga champions title. Bayern can secure the title in the next round against the "Kaiserslautern" team.
However, securing a victory against the league leaders will certainly not be easy, as with two rounds to go, the "Kaiserslautern" players still have hope of staying in the Bundesliga. In this round, they drew 2-2 with the "Eintracht" team and closed in on the "Wolfsburg" club in fifteenth place, currently separated by two points.
After Wednesday's matches, it became clear that we will not see the "Koln" team in the Bundesliga next season. Theoretically, the Koln players can still equalize points with the "Wolfsburg" team, but to do so, they need to win the remaining matches and hope for two losses by the "Wolfsburg" team. However, if "Wolfsburg" loses, it would open the doors to next year's Bundesliga for the "Kaiserslautern" team, who will face off against Wolfsburg in the last round.
Additionally, after this season, the "Duisburg" club will also have to leave the Bundesliga, as they were defeated 3-5 by the "Werder" club on Wednesday, with this victory almost guaranteeing Werder the third place, which grants entry to the Champions League qualifiers.
Wednesday's match statistics:
3 – 1 6` [0 – 1] Danijel Ljuboja 11` [1 – 1] Roque Santa Cruz 44` [2 – 1] Claudio Pizarro 46` [3 – 1] Bastian Schweinsteiger
2 – 2 16` [0 – 1] Sebastian Reinert 50` [1 – 1] Benjamin Köhler 69` [2 – 1] Ioannis Amanatidis 83` [2 – 2] Marcel Ziemer
3 – 1 40` [1 – 0] Gerald Asamoah 50` [1 – 1] Marco Küntzel 80` [2 – 1] Sören Larsen 88` [3 – 1] Hamit Altintop
3 – 5 4` [0 – 1] Johan Micoud 16` [0 – 2] Johan Micoud 31` [0 – 3] Miroslav Klose 40` [1 – 3] Jung-Hwan Ahn 45` [2 – 3] Abdelaziz Ahanfouf 75` [2 – 4] Miroslav Klose 76` [3 – 4] Abdelaziz Ahanfouf 86` [3 – 5] Ivan Klasnic
0 – 3 5` [0 – 1] Michael Thurk 80` [0 – 2] Benjamin Auer 85` [0 – 3] Benjamin Auer