The German football season comes to an end

Another German football season is over.

Who were at the winners and losers?

Which teams will be playing where next year?

The Bundesliga – excitement right to the end

Yet again Bayern München are Bundesliga champions, but Borussia Dortmund chased them to the very last game. For a time it even looked as if Dortmund might be able to knock Bayern off their pedestal. As recently as February the Munich team were seven points behind. Although Bayern eventually inched ahead, only two points separated the two teams on the final day. Despite beating Borussia Mönchengladbach 2:0 Dortmund finished the season two points behind the champions. Had Bayern lost against Frankfurt on the same day, Dortmund would have won the league.

The best of the rest

Dortmund will join third and fourth-placed RB Leipzig and Bayer 04 Leverkusen in next season’s Champions League.

The final day defeat to Dortmund means Borussia Mönchengladbach miss out on a Champions League place. But they will join VfL Wolfsburg in the Europa League. Eintracht Frankfurt had a brilliant season, playing exciting and attractive football. for a while had a real chance of finishing in the Bundesliga top four. Instead, by finishing 7th they have just pipped Werder Bremen to the final Europa League qualifiers slot.

Going down

At the other end of the table 1 FC Nürnberg, Hannover 96 and VfB Stuttgart drop down to the second tier.

Coming up

1 FC Köln have bounced back to the first division after just one season in the second division. They are joined by SC Paderborn 07 who end a rollercoaster five-year sequence of crises, relegations, promotions and changes of coach by finishing second.

Union Berlin just missed out on automatic promotion, but beat VfB Stuttgart in the promotion/relegation playoffs.

Biggest disappointment

FC Schalke 04 fans are probably this season’s most disappointed supporters. A second place finish in 2017/18 and the prospect of European football meant there was huge anticipation in the Veltins Arena that the Gelsenkirchen club would start to fulfil its huge potential. As it turned out Schalke finished 14th and only just avoided relegation.

German football teams in Europe

In 2018/19 German clubs under-performed in Europe. TSG Hoffenheim and FC Schalke 04 failed to progress past the group stage and both Bayern and Dortmund were eliminated in the first knockout stage by Liverpool and Spurs.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen and RB Leipzig were knocked out of the Europa League at the group stage.

Eintracht Frankfurt bucked the trend and came agonisingly close to reaching the final of the Europa League – losing a penalty shootout to Chelsea in the semi-final.

2 Bundesliga – another drop for Ingolstadt

MSV Duisburg and 1 FC Magdeburg are automatically relegated to the third division. They are joined by Ingolstadt 04 who failed to beat Wehen Wiesbaden to avoid the drop.