The Daily Bee (May 13th, 2019): Matchday 33 - There’s still hope

• Matchday 33

The Bundesliga title remains undecided until the last matchday of the Bundesliga thanks to BVB’s narrow win against Fortuna Düsseldorf and RB Leipzig holding Bayern Munich to a goalless draw. Dortmund will now have to win in Gladbach and hope Eintracht Frankfurt can defeat Bayern to claim the title.

Thankfully for BVB, Frankfurt will want to win in Munich to have a chance at a top 4 finish and the Champions League. Frankfurt was in prime position to get themselves an advantage heading into matchday 34 but they surprisingly lost to Mainz at home.

Bayer Leverkusen could not take advantage and just drew against Schalke at home which means Dortmund’s next opponent, Borussia Mönchengladbach, was able to jump temporarily to 4th place with a 4:0 victory over Nürnberg. Not only the title race but also the competition for the last remaining Champions League spot will be intense.

VfL Wolfsburg, TSG Hoffenheim and Werder Bremen will fight for 7th place next week, which would send them to the Europa League. Wolfsburg had a chance to enter the race for the Champions League but they lost 0:3 to VfB Stuttgart. In the direct duel Bremen was able to defeat Hoffenheim 1:0 to keep their chances at international football alive.

Meanwhile 1.FC Nürnberg and Hannover 96 have both been relegated because of Stuttgart’s win who will in turn play the relegation playoff against the third place team in the 2.Bundesliga which will be either Union Berlin or SC Paderborn.

• 2.Bundesliga

There’s also just one more week to go in the 2.Bundesliga and shockingly one of the biggest favorites for promotion was eliminated on matchday 33. Hamburger SV losr 1:4 to SC Paderborn which means they won’t immediately come back to the Bundesliga after just one year.

1.FC Köln had already clinched 1st place last matchday but it’s still unsure who will join them in the Bundesliga. Going into the last matchday Paderborn has the best odds sitting at 57 points just one point ahead of Union Berlin at 56. Paderborn will play in Dresden next Sunday and Union will travel to Bochum to decide who’ll play in the Bundesliga next year and who still has to play Stuttgart.

At the bottom of the table 1.FC Magdeburg and MSV Duisburg both lost and got relegated to the 3.Bundesliga. FC Ingolstadt 04 (35 points) still has a chance to catch SV Sandhausen (37 pts) on the last matchday and avoid the relegation playoff.

• Rode suffers knee injury

Sebastian Rode has suffered a devastating knee injury during Frankfurt’s Europa League semifinal against Chelsea. The central midfielder who’s on loan from Dortmund played a fantastic second half of the season for Eintracht. The injury is described as cartilage damage in his right knee which will sideline him for quite some time.

First of all we wish him a speedy recovery and hope we’ll see him back on the pitch soon. It’s unclear yet if Frankfurt have any plans to make the move permanent now but their sporting director Fredi Bobic announced that there will be talks with BVB.

• BVB plans for the summer (kicker)

Dortmund’s plans for this summer seem clear and kicker goes into the details of what that means specifically.

BVB’s top targets still are Thorgan Hazard and Julian Brandt, however Zorc is not willing to pay more than 30€ million for Hazard who has already agreed to terms with BVB. The Belgian international will either join this summer or next year on a free transfer. Brandt’s transfer on the other hand will largely depend on the outcome of the last matchday. If Leverkusen get into the Champions League the young winger could decide to stay for one more year, if they don’t BVB could sign him thanks to his 25€ million release clause.

A bit more surprising is the fact that Raphael Guerreiro could be sold this summer. The versatile left back/winger has not signed an extension yet of current deal (until 2020). If Guerreiro refuses to extend Dortmund might have to sell him this summer with PSG being interested in him.