Cheers in Bremen, Ko for Düsseldorf: Fortunas Kaan Ayhan lost the decisive duel shortly before his own penalty area, Unions Christian Gentner scored in his 409th Bundesliga game to make it 2-0 for Berlin. That was the blow from which the Düsseldorf team could not recover – and which made it possible for Werder Bremen to continue to hope for relegation in the Bundesliga.
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Descent results: Werder Bremen defeated 1. FC Köln 6: 1 (3: 0), Fortuna Düsseldorf lost to Union Berlin 0: 3 (0: 1). Bremen and Düsseldorf swapped positions on the last matchday, Werder goes into relegation, Fortuna directly into league two. Click here for the match reports.
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The first half of the Fortuna: A win, and the Fortuna would have defended 16th place – accordingly, it went to work and came in the twelfth minute through Ayhan to a very good opportunity. Union’s gentleman fended off Ayhan’s header just before the line. The goal fell on the opposite side: Anthony Ujah poked the ball after a standard situation over the line of the Dusseldorf goal (26th minute).
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The first half of Bremen: The guests from Cologne clearly showed that it was no longer about anything. The Bremen team first waited and then struck: Yuya Osako (22nd), Milot Rashica (27th) and Niclas Füllkrug (29th) ensured the presentable 3-0 lead for the break. The Bremen team had only scored twice in the thousand home minutes before, now three times in seven minutes.
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The location: With two points and a four-goal lead, Fortuna had started the last game day over the Bremen team. Everything is gone. However: With the equalizer, the Dusseldorf would be back in pole position.
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The second half of Bremen: Davy Klaassen (55.), again Osako (58.) and Joshua Sargent (68.) scored for Werder, Dominick Drexler scored 1: 5 for the immensely disappointing Cologne (62.). Homework done – what did the fortunes do?
The second half of the Fortuna: Coach Uwe Rösler had encouraged his team to take more shots on goal, and they kept to it. Only a few of the more than two dozen graduates of the guests went dangerously on the goal of the Berliners. Instead, Gentner increased to 2-0 (54th) after a mistake in the Düsseldorf defense. The Fortuna tried everything now, even goalkeeper Florian Kastenmeier went forward several times after less than 80 minutes. The final point, however, set Union: Suleiman Abdullahi scored in the 90th minute to 3: 0.
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The ex-Werder factor: With Ujah and Felix Kroos, two players connected to SV Werder were in the starting XI of Union, who played this 34th matchday in an extremely honorable manner. A few ex-Düsseldorfers might have done the Cologne starting eleven good.
Everything different: Werder had won against FC Augsburg on matchday three – that was the home win for Bremen this season. Number two happened just in time. The six goals against Cologne were matched by nine (!) From the previous 16 (!) Home games.
Everything else II: The Fortuna had not won often recently (one win, seven draws, two defeats), but had looked so compact and passionate that a result could be expected in Berlin even for the weakest away team in the league. But against the surprise team of the season (eleventh and 41 points for the newcomer Union), Rösler’s team got out of step after a decent initial phase. This almost unknown Fortuna face came to light on the decisive day of the game.
What’s next? Düsseldorf’s sixth Bundesliga relegation is not a sensation, but appeared avoidable in competition with the weakening Bremen. Now the club has to move back to the second division after the last relegation in 2012/2013. At that time, it also went down with 30 points as the penultimate – then it took eight coaches in five years to attack and rise again.
With a tailwind in the relegation: On July 2, Werder Bremen receives the third of the second division in the first leg of the relegation (8.30 p.m., live ticker SPIEGEL.de), four days later the return leg increases. Whether the opponent’s name is Heidenheim or Hamburger SV will be decided tomorrow. If it should be HSV, the first knockout matches between these two teams would be since the 19-day duel in the 2008/2009 season, when there were four matches in the league, cup and UEFA Cup faced. It would be the furious final chord of a strange season.
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