What we learnt from the final Bundesliga matchday of the season | OneFootball

Well, here we are. It is over. The 2024/25 Bundesliga season comes to an end. What a way for it to end as well, with qualifying for the Champions League and a relegation playoff spot.

Results:

Augsburg 1-2 Union Berlin

Borussia Dortmund 3-0 Holstein Kiel

Borussia Mönchengladbach 0-1 Wolfsburg

Heidenheim 1-4 Werder Bremen

Freiburg 1-3 Eintracht Frankfurt

Hoffenheim 0-4 Bayern Munich

Mainz 2-2 Bayer Leverkusen

RB Leipzig 2-3 Stuttgart

St.Pauli 0-2 Bochum

So, for the final time (in the Bundesliga) this season, here is what we learnt:

Borussia Dortmund somehow qualify for the Champions League:

It’s not really a ‘somehow’, it’s more, everyone else around them has been so inconsistent that Niko Kovac has been able to turn a team that barely knew how to kick a football into a competent team who ended up taking advantage of this to move up the table.

The Croatian has been able to turn Dortmund into a hardworking team with more of a clear identity than they had under Nuri Sahin. He has allowed Karim Adeyemi to shine as well as the likes of Daniel Svensson and Pascal Groß. So what I am about to say may be jumping the gun. but…

If Dortmund recruit well in the summer, then they could be a lot closer to the top of the table in a year’s time. Where Dortmund need to recruit will be a couple of centre-backs, an alternative to Groß and a backup for Serhou Guirassy.

RB Leipzig miss out on the Conference League while Mainz qualify :

It is well known that Leipzig, more specifically Red Bull, wants to win the Bundesliga. But they have now missed out on European football for the first time in their short history. So, what is the point of all this?

Leipzig will lose Xavi Simons and Benjamin Seško in the summer; some other players will probably leave as well, then they will sign some youngster who will develop, and the cycle will continue. You will never win the Bundesliga doing this, no matter how good your prospects are. On top of this, hiring Red Bull managers means you will constantly reach a ceiling, which is becoming increasingly obvious. The positive is that Leipzig will miss out on a potential home final next season.

Instead, Mainz will be in their place. The 05ers have been terrific all season, and qualifying for Europe is a valid reward for the work that has been done over the past 365 days. Sadly, VAR stopped a great moment with Stefan Bell scoring the goal to take the lead against Bayer Leverkusen, only for it to be ruled out.

My favourite Mainz player this season? Paul Nebel. In his first Bundesliga season, he has been great, and if Michael Olise didn’t exist, a fair argument could be made on why Nebel should win Young Player of the Year. Bring on the Conference League Nebel Nation.

Gerardo Seoane, its time to go:

Two months ago, Gladbach had a chance to qualify for Europe. Now they have finished 10th. They finished the season on a six-game winless run, and that should solidify the decision surrounding Seoane’s future. There shouldn’t be one.

This season, die Fohlen have been too reliant on individuals to rescue them, and when those individuals don’t perform, well, you get this.

When it comes to who will be hired to replace Seoane, they need to return to their roots and play fun football. Something that has been missing for a while. It is not entirely the manager’s fault as both Adi Hütter and Daniel Farke have gone on to achieve things since leaving Gladbach, but there is also no accountability and apart from the signings last summer, Roland Virkus has also not done that good of a job since replacing Max Eberl.

Hoffenheim are lucky:

Why are Hoffenheim lucky? Every team below them has been significantly worse than them, and today, that is shown.

Against Bayern, Hoffenheim were terrible, but because Heidenheim were equally bad against Werder Bremen, they survived the possibility of dropping into the relegation playoff spot.

I cannot wait for them to spend an ungodly amount of money in the summer to do anything significant next season.

Heidenheim, on the other hand. I am of the belief that they will lose the relegation playoff, although history is on the Bundesliga team’s side. If one of the ‘bigger’ teams is in the playoffs, such as Köln, they will lose.

The Xabi Alonso Bayer Leverkusen era ends on a sour note:

In the final six games of the season, Leverkusen have won once, against Heidenheim. Since the March international break, die Werkself have been limping to the end of the season and never really put up a fight to close the gap to Bayern Munich.

Alonso’s departure comes at the right time for both manager and team as it is increasingly obvious that he has taken them as far as they can go, and some of the players have reverted to type this season.

Considering the impending upheaval, whoever is the new head coach will need to be a big difference maker to give Leverkusen even a little bit of hope of coming close to Bayern next season.

A way too early prediction for next season:

This prediction will be conditional. Bayern sign Wirtz or Bayern don’t sign Wirtz.

Bayern Sign Wirtz:

Well, they will run away with the title no matter how good they play, and it will be boring and largely forgettable.

Bayern don’t sign Wirtz:

I think this Leverkusen era is now over, regardless of in the scenario Wirtz stays at the BayArena to moves abroad. As mentioned, if Dortmund are smart (this is a reach), they could be back, especially considering the lack of bottle they showed during this run-in. If Stuttgart wins the DFB-Pokal, this will take them up a level and they will be competing for top four and could mount a push if they hit the form that they did last season.

While for Bayern, a failed maniacal pursuit of Wirtz could result in them neglecting the other areas of their squad, making rash signings, and ending up with other unhappy members of their squad. Then if Vincent Kompany is a victim of second-season syndrome, like Alonso did (I know this was his third, it was his second full season), then there is a scenario that the Belgian could be sacked.

I am not going to say who wins the league, as I still think it would be Bayern (regretably)

You get a special treat, tomorrow there will be a ‘Things we learnt from the 2.Bundesliga final matchday of the season’ which is bound to bring drama.

GGFN | Jack Meenan

(What will I be doing after the end of the German football season next week? Well, I will be taking my talents to the Tour de France, where a small Danish man will look to end the reign of terror of potentially the greatest cyclist of all time.)