Bundesliga ends: Gladbach reaches Champions League, Dusseldorf relegated

Bayern received the trophy on Saturday, its eighth consecutive Bundesliga title. (Twitter / Bundesliga_EN)

The restart of the German soccer league is complete. Borussia Monchengladbach qualified for the Champions League and Fortuna Dusseldorf was relegated by a single point on the last day of the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Germany becomes the first major European men’s soccer league to complete a full season after restarting during the empty-stage coronavirus pandemic.

The Bundesliga pioneered widespread player virus testing and socially distanced training sessions that have since been copied by other competitions across the continent.

Bayern Munich secured their eighth consecutive title two games earlier and finished with a 13-point lead over Borussia Dortmund in the second. Bayern received the trophy on Saturday, their chants of “champions” echoing in the empty stadium in Wolfsburg.

Gladbach secured his return to the Champions League for the first time since 2016-17 by beating Hertha Berlin 2-1 to finish fourth ahead of Bayer Leverkusen.

Breel Embolo contained two defenders to set up Jonas Hofmann to score Gladbach’s opening goal. In the second half, the roles were reversed when Hofmann played for Embolo to take advantage of a well-worked short corner routine on the far post.

A goal in the second minute by Kevin Volland was enough for Leverkusen to beat Mainz 1-0. Leverkusen could still qualify for next season’s Champions League by winning the Europa League, which will end like a mini tournament in Germany in August.

Few gave Werder Bremen much hope of avoiding automatic degradation on the last day. He had only defeated Paderborn last in his previous five games and lost the other four.

Bremen was left with a favor from Union Berlin to beat Dusseldorf and claim a surprise 6-1 win against Cologne to leave the automatic relegation spot.

“We were never dead and there was always a chance,” Bremen midfielder Davy Klaassen told Sky.

Werder fans soon began to gather outside the stadium to celebrate while avoiding relegation. The club begged them to avoid large gatherings of people due to the coronavirus.

Bremen hoped that pride would spur Union players, who were already assured of survival, to give theirs all against Dusseldorf. The DJ from the Bremen stadium even played the Union anthem before the start against visiting Cologne.

Japanese striker Yuya Osako opened the scoring on 22 before the news came that former Bremen striker Anthony Ujah had given Union the lead against Dusseldorf. Milot Rashica and Niklas Fullkrug reinforced Bremen’s lead while Dusseldorf increased their pressure but could not force a draw before the break.

Ujah prepared Christan Gentner for second place in the Union in 54th, as Bremen scored three more with just one consolation goal for Dominican Dickger of Cologne.

Union ended with a 3-0 win over Dusseldorf, which was ruined by a series of games that tied after leading.

“I feel sorry for our fans. We fought and fought and fought,” Dusseldorf coach Uwe Rusler told Sky. The players “gave me everything and it wasn’t enough.”

Union goalkeeper Rafa Gikiewicz said goodbye in his last game before a move.

“It is really difficult with coronavirus restrictions, but I hope that next season I can say goodbye to fans again correctly,” he said.

Bremen will then face a two-stage tiebreaker against the team finishing third in the second division, most likely Heidenheim or Hamburger SV, to see what they play in the Bundesliga next season.

The first stage is July 2 with the second stage four days later.

Bayern beat Wolfsburg 4-0 to finish with 100 goals for the season, one less than the record. Robert Lewandowski scored a penalty for his 34th goal of the season in the Bundesliga when the Polish forward finished as the league’s top scorer for the third consecutive season.

Bayern had 16 wins in the 17-game league in 2020, just for a goalless draw against Leipzig. Bayern can win a home double against Leverkusen in the cup final on July 4.

Dortmund crashed to an unexpected 4-0 loss to Hoffenheim in an echo of the defensive problems that often plagued his title bid. Andrej Kramaric scored all four goals for Hoffenheim.

Timo Werner scored twice for Leipzig third in his last game for the club before a transfer to Chelsea in a 2-1 victory over Augsburg. Werner equaled a 46-year-old league record by scoring his 17th goal of the season on the road.

Freiburg dismantled Schalke 4-0 to extend Schalke’s winless career to 16 games. Eintracht Frankfurt defeated Paderborn 3-2.