Nothing is lost for all six clubs at the bottom of the Bundesliga table. But the club, which will play a key role in determining the fate of the relegation battle on the next three matchdays, has had to experience how dramatically a seemingly secure lead can collapse.
Nine game days, 27 points still to be awarded. While in Leverkusen, with a ten-point lead over Bayern, the champagne can already be cold for the early championship celebration, the snail race for the relegation places seems to be slowly and slowly moving towards a decisive home straight. Finally. Until now, the almost dramatic problem down there in the table cellar was that the six teams in dire danger of relegation were barely able to move on their own. But now the direct duels are coming up in the next few weeks – and some candidates at the bottom of the table are hoping that it will soon be clarified which league they will be in next season.
At the moment, if you only look at the last five games, 1. FC Union Berlin is the one-eyed among the blind. Because the Berliners won at least two of these five games. But for the Köpenickers, too, the interim run seems to have come to an end again for the time being. Nevertheless, two more victories will probably be enough for the Union team like VfL Wolfsburg (13th place) to stay in the league – if the currently last three teams in the table don’t pull off a really big miracle. So far, Darmstadt has scored an average of 0.52 points, FSV Mainz 0.64 and 1. FC Köln 0.72 points from the 25 games.
If this pattern continued, the Domstadt team would only have 25 points in their account at the end of the season. VfL Bochum (15th place), who are on the safe side, have already secured exactly the same number of points. But not everything is lost for Darmstadt, Mainz and Cologne. Because now the three clubs will face VfL Bochum in direct duels on the next three match days.
Bochum knows the great misery
And the men from the Ruhr area have the most frustrating record of all six clubs at the bottom of the table with three defeats from their last three games. After the surprising win at home in the Ruhrstadion against the reigning champions FC Bayern Munich, there is little left for the Bochum team. The local kickers seem to have lost their luck on several levels – and now the next three games are about more than just nine points. Because VfL has been warned – or better: it should be!
After all, the last relegation from the first Bundesliga in the 2009/10 season was so catastrophically dramatic that there are quite a few Bochum residents who preferred to ignore these tragic weeks for their club. At that time, VfL Bochum had already collected 27 points after the 24th matchday and was nine points ahead of sixteenth place 1. FC Nürnberg. When the season finally came to an end after the 34th matchday, the club from the Ruhr area had just one more point to its credit and was relegated straight away with 28 points. A drama that of course they never want to experience again in Bochum.
But it is precisely this example that shows that anything is still possible. Conversely, after the 28th matchday and VfL Bochum’s away game at 1. FC Köln, all three clubs behind VfL can only be about the relegation place as the best possible placement. The fate of the relegation battle is largely determined by the club, which itself once failed so tragically – despite a seemingly comfortable lead. But no matter how it turns out in the end: the league can look forward to an exciting and probably dramatic finish at the bottom of the table.