While the Bundesliga title race was wrapped up long ago, the other end of the table might be in for the fiercest battle it has seen in a while.
As of now, the bottom three teams in the league are as follows: Bayern Munich’s most recent opponent VfL Wolfsburg in 16th, FC Heidenheim in 17th, and FC St. Pauli in 18th. Heidenheim were able to escape rock bottom with their 3-1 win over FC Köln.
Here’s the kicker: the three teams are all level on 26 points. This means that the result on the final matchday
will ultimately decide who stays to fight in the relegation playoff, and who goes directly down to the 2. Bundesliga. What makes it even spicier is that the three teams are only separated by three goals, with Wolfsburg on -26 and both Heidenheim and St. Pauli on -29 in goal difference.
And if that was not enough, Wolfsburg and St. Pauli face each other on the final matchday, with St. Pauli hosting the match. Meanwhile, Heidenheim welcome Mainz 05 to their backyard. Mainz are in patchy form at the moment, with them playing against Union Berlin at the time of writing, and since Heidenheim have only lost one of their last five matches and won three, there is no guarantee of what will happen. That said, Mainz are no strangers to throwing pepper on someone else’s party, just ask Borussia Dortmund what happened in 2023.
On a slightly less fiery note, the final Champions League spot will also be decided on the final matchday. Bayern’s DFB-Pokal final opponents VfB Stuttgart currently hold the advantage in 4th place, but TSG Hoffenheim are breathing down their necks in 5th, level on points and five goals behind. Three points behind those two are Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who actually have a better goal difference than Hoffenheim, only a goal behind Stuttgart. So a possible win for Leverkusen could shake up the table if Stuttgart and Hoffenheim both stumble.
Among these three, Stuttgart arguably have the hardest draw on Matchday 34, as they visit 8th placed Eintracht Frankfurt. Hoffenheim and Leverkusen play Borussia Mönchengladbach and Hamburger SV, who are 12th and 11th, respectively. Hoffenheim has to go to Mönchengladbach, while Leverkusen are hosting Hamburg.
All matches kick off at the same time on Saturday. While Bayern fans will most likely be looking forward to the post-match Meisterschale celebration, the rest of the league will be either mildly amused or sweating bullets for the final 90 minutes of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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