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Stuttgart's coach Pellegrino Matarazzo (left) celebrates with his players after the 2-1
Photo: Tom Weller / dpa
Endo good, all good:
injury time, a raging stadium.
VfB still need one goal to stay up, there was the last corner: Hiroki Ito extended the cross, Wataru Endo headed the ball over the line at the second post.
The 2:1, the rescue, the explosion.
The season finale:
VfB Stuttgart will also play in the Bundesliga next season, Hertha BSC has to go into relegation.
Arminia Bielefeld descends directly next to Greuther Fürth.
Here is the message.
The starting position:
Hertha BSC were three points ahead of VfB after the 33rd matchday, but had a much worse goal difference.
In order to stay up directly in Stuttgart, VfB had to win against Cologne and Berlin had to lose at Borussia Dortmund.
Hell and heaven for Kalajdzic:
VfB started exactly as was necessary given the initial situation.
With an offensive drive, with chances to score.
Sasa Kalajdzic scored a header in the 12th minute to make it 1-0.
However, it was more spectacular than it reads, because less than 60 seconds earlier he had failed with a penalty kick at FC goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe, who made a strong save.
How would Hertha react?
Penalties there, penalties here:
After the match point against Mainz last week, coach Felix Magath had changed his team to four positions and given him the concept of "stand well, set pinpricks".
That worked.
Dan-Axel Zagadou brought down Ishak Belfodil in the penalty area, and the Algerian converted his penalty safely (18th minute).
Half-time:
VfB were overwhelmingly superior, had two great chances (32nd and 35th) through Endo alone, the 1-0 lead should have been higher.
Hertha BSC let unimaginative Dortmund start and was still three points ahead of the competition from Stuttgart.
Advantage Hertha.
Turn three into five:
Stuttgart's goalkeeper Florian Müller brought movement into the relegation battle.
He let a harmless Cologne cross slip through his fingers, Anthony Modeste thanked him with a header to make it 1-1 (59th).
At that point, 25 minutes before the end of the 34th match day, Hertha were five (!) points ahead of VfB.
What else could go wrong?
Five becomes three becomes one:
A situation that was evaluated as a handball by Marvin Plattenhardt was the beginning of the end for Hertha.
Erling Haaland converted the penalty in his last game for BVB (68th).
Berlin's goalkeeper Marcel Lotka, who has already signed a contract with opponents Dortmund for the coming season but is now supposed to stay, had no chance.
When Yousouffa Moukoko, who came on as a substitute, scored to make it 2-1 (84th), the guests from the capital no longer had relegation in their own hands, but were still in 15th place.
Football, holy's tinkle:
Sir Alex Ferguson reportedly said »Football, bloody hell« after Manchester United's last-minute win over FC Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final.
With the 34th matchday of the 2021/2022 season, a Swabian version should also find its way into the football canon.
Corner, Ito extra time, Endo headed (90+2).
“I've got a skull after that shouting and cheering.
That was ecstasy, a great moment, outstanding.
You never forget a moment like today," said VfB coach Pellegrino Matarazzo after the final whistle on "Sky".
Now also relegation:
His Berlin colleague Felix Magath said nothing at first.
After the final whistle, he quickly went into the dressing room in Dortmund. Even an I-have-seen-everything guy like the 68-year-old has to deal with such a blow first.
However, he only has limited time for this: on May 19th and 23rd (both at 8:30 p.m.) his team will meet the third-placed team in the second division in the relegation.
A no less exciting decision about promotion awaits there on Sunday.
Bielefeld, honorary:
Bielefeld would have had to catch up on VfB on the last day of the game with three points and seven goals to leave the direct relegation zone.
That didn't work.
With a 1: 1 (0: 0) against RB Leipzig, Arminia says goodbye to the Bundesliga.
The financially inferior club would have had to play at the limit of their possibilities to stay up.
He didn't manage that over the entire season and now, like Fürth, has to try again in the second division.
It will be decided in nine days whether Hertha BSC will also be one of the competitors for promotion.