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BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – FC Bayern Munich snatched the German soccer championship from Borussia Dortmund in a dramatic Bundesliga final. The Munich side won 2-1 (1-0) at 1. FC Koln on Saturday, benefiting from BVB’s 2-2 (0-2) draw with FSV Mainz 05, as Bayern celebrated their eleventh championship in a row. FC Schalke 04 is the second team to be relegated alongside Hertha BSC after its 2:4 (1:2) loss at cup finalist RB Leipzig. VfB Stuttgart has to go through relegation after a 1:1 (0:0) draw against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.
In the Champions League next season, Bayern, Dortmund and Leipzig will be joined by 1. FC Union Berlin, which won 1-0 (1-0) against Werder Bremen and kept SC Freiburg at bay, which lost 2-1 (1-0) at Eintracht Frankfurt. The Breisgauer are qualified for the Europa League, Eintracht can still hope for the Conference League playoffs as seventh in the table.
Bayer Leverkusen remained sixth despite losing 3-0 (0-2) at rescued VfL Bochum. VfL Wolfsburg missed out on a place in the European Cup after losing 1:2 (1:0) to Hertha. FC Augsburg also kept the class on Saturday despite a 0:2 (0:2) at Borussia Monchengladbach.
Bayern took the lead through Kingsley Coman (8th) and put BVB under pressure early on. Dortmund conceded 0:1 a little later through Andreas Hanche-Olsen (15th) – suddenly the starting position of the championship contenders had completely turned around. A penalty after a foul by Dominik Kohr on Raphaël Guerreiro could have brought Dortmund back into the game, but Sébastien Haller failed to beat goalkeeper Finn Dahmen (19.).
Karim Onisiwo (24.) made it even more difficult for BVB with his goal. Bayern managed their game in this phase. Leroy Sané supposedly ensured a two-goal lead shortly before the half-time break, but the goal did not count because the international had handled the ball beforehand (45.).
In the second half, Raphaël Guerreiro (69th) gave Dortmund fans hope again with the connecting goal. In Koln, Dejan Ljubicic (81.) converted a handball penalty caused by Serge Gnabry – now Dortmund was ahead again. But Jamal Musiala (89th) put Bayern back in front and made Munich the champions. The BVB goal by Niklas Süle (90.+6) did nothing to change that.
Schalke conceded the 0:1 as early as the tenth minute through Konrad Laimer. Christopher Nkunku (19.) added to the tally for Leipzig before Marcin Kaminski (28.) scored the equalizer. An own goal by Willi Orban (49th) finally brought the Schalkers back into the game – but only until Yussuf Poulsen (82nd) scored for RB. Nkunku (90.+4) again decided the game for good. Stuttgart fell behind due to the goal conceded by Ihlas Bebou (75th), Tiago Tomás (80th) only equalized.
Freiburg was jubilant after Vincenzo Grifo (45th) scored to make it 1-0 in Frankfurt, but Eintracht came back through Randal Kolo Muani (83rd) and Éric Dina Ebimbe (90.+2). Union was able to follow up in the parallel match for the Konigsklasse anyway through Rani Khedira (81st).
Leverkusen had to do without Amine Adli early on, who saw the red card after an assault in the eighth minute. Philipp Forster gave Bochum the lead in the 19th minute, while Takuma Asano (34th) and Kevin Stoger (86th) added to the tally.
In Wolfsburg, Jakub Kaminski (2nd) scored early for VfL. For Berlin, Ibrahim Maza (55th) scored his first Bundesliga goal to equalize before Marco Richter (68th) even put the relegated team ahead.
Luca Netz (4th) gave Monchengladbach the lead, and Jonas Hofmann (40th) also scored for Borussia. Augsburg’s Robert Gumny saw the red card shortly before the break for an emergency stop (45.+2)./mj/DP/zb