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Union goal scorers Grischa Prömel and Taiwo Awoniyi
Photo:
ANNEGRET HILSE / REUTERS
RB Leipzig follows the already qualified FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the Champions League.
On the last matchday of the Bundesliga, the Leipzigers handed a 1-1 (0-0) win at Arminia Bielefeld to move into the premier class.
Union Berlin follows in fifth place after beating VfL Bochum 3-2 (2-0) at home.
Like SC Freiburg, Köpenicker will play in the Europa League next season: Freiburg finish the season in sixth place after losing 1-2 (0-0) at Bayer Leverkusen.
1. FC Köln will represent the Bundesliga in the Conference League next season after a 1-2 (0-1) loss at VfB Stuttgart and will end the season in seventh place.
The Europe table at a glance:
In addition to the seven qualified clubs, Eintracht Frankfurt can also qualify for the European Cup: if they win the Europa League final against Glasgow Rangers, Eintracht will play in the Champions League next season.
The final will take place on May 18 (9 p.m., TV: RTL) in Seville.
Bayer Leverkusen had already secured third place last week and thus direct Champions League qualification.
So the final home game against SC Freiburg was a bonus game for Bayer.
Before the start of the game, long-time sporting director Rudi Völler was retired, and Julian Baumgartlinger and Daley Sinkgraven were in the starting XI and there were also a few professionals who are not normally part of the permanent staff and should probably get one last game for Bayer.
Freiburg, on the other hand, had a chance to move up to fourth place in the long-distance duel against RB Leipzig a week before the DFB Cup final.
However, it would not only have support from Bielefeld, but also its own victory – both failed: A header from Lucas Höler only hit the outer post (20th minute), Lucas Alario punished Bayer shortly after the break after a submission by Patrik Schick a Freiburg central defense that came out too boldly (54th).
Janik Haberer's equalizer came too late for a Freiburg comeback (89'), Exequiel Palacios' goal against Freiburg, who had moved up completely, ensured Bayer's home win (90'+7').
RB Leipzig only needed a point at penultimate Arminia Bielefeld to safely move into the Champions League.
There should be, but Domenico Tedesco's team had to tremble for the premier class for a long time.
Christopher Nkunku hit the outside post for the clearly superior Leipzig (13th), but RB didn't want to take the lead.
Janni Serra, who pushed the ball over the line from close range to give Bielefeld the lead, made the goal tremble again (70').
A late goal by Willi Orban (90+3) not only sealed Arminia's relegation, but also secured fourth place for Leipzig.
1. FC Köln were unlucky to have VfB Stuttgart, a highly motivated opponent for the last day of the game: The Swabians definitely needed a win to move forward from the relegation rank and to create direct relegation.
Accordingly, VfB started the game offensively, Saša Kalajdžić failed after Luca Kilian fouled Tiago Tomás with a penalty to Marvin Schwäbe, only to head the following corner into the goal seconds later (12').
Even after the lead, almost only Stuttgart played.
Schwäbe saved several times in dire need, against Wataru Endo (35th) the crossbar also helped to keep the deficit just short.
The poor exploitation of chances was to take revenge at first: goalkeeper Florian Müller let a Cologne cross slip through his fingers, Anthony Modeste scored his 20th goal of the season to equalize (59th).
In injury time, Wataru Endo held Stuttgart in the class (90+2) and ended all of Cologne's remaining dreams of the Europa League.
16 out of a possible 18 league points since the beginning of April: Even before the final day of the Bundesliga match, there was no team in better form than Union Berlin.
And in the final home game against VfL Bochum, the run of Urs Fischer's team continued.
First Grischa Prömel headed a free-standing Haraguchi cross into the goal (5'), then Taiwo Awoniyi converted a penalty that Robert Tesche had caused with a handball (25').
Simon Zoller with a header (55') and Eduard Löwen (79') equalized the game in the meantime, a second goal from Awoniyi secured Union the three points late (88').
With the win, Union passed SC Freiburg and climbed to fifth place in the final table, the best final placement for the Köpenickers since they were promoted to the Bundesliga in 2019. This means that the club will compete in the Europa League next season.
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