Frankfurt, Freiburg and BVB set for UCL prize grab | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt, Freiburg and Borussia Dortmund in Champions League showdown

It all comes down to this: one final matchday to seal a top-four spot, with Frankfurt, Freiburg and Dortmund ready to give their all for the cause on the path to the UEFA Champions League promised land.

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The final Bundesliga battle for a top-four finish offers one simple equation: three into two won't go.

With champions Bayern Munich and runners-up Bayer Leverkusen already guaranteed two of the four spots among next season's European elite, Frankfurt, Freiburg and Dortmund are all set for a three-way battle to join them.

To add plenty of spice to the Matchday 34 mix, Dino Toppmöller's third-placed Eagles fly south to the Black Forest to face a Freiburg side in fourth and aiming for club history.

Freiburg are aiming to create club history on Saturday. (DFL/Getty Images/Reinaldo Coddou)

The Dortmund express train, meanwhile, welcome the already relegated Holstein Kiel to platform Signal Iduna Park, with the hosts lying in wait in fifth place. With all of the final matchday games starting at the same time, Saturday's script could hardly be more enticing.

It almost seems implausible that Frankfurt could falter in their quest to qualify for the Champions League via the Bundesliga route for the first time at this late stage. Die Adler have - after all - spent all but one of the last 25 matchdays in the division's top three.

Yet, a run of just one win in their last four games has allowed the chasing pack to close. The best placed side of the three challengers as things stand, last weekend's 2-2 draw at home against St. Pauli means Toppmöller and his players can feel the pressure.

The situation is this: Eintracht have 57 points, two more than Saturday's opponents Freiburg and three more than Dortmund. Win or avoid defeat at the Europa-Park Stadion - where they have never lost - and Frankfurt will finish third.

Another scenario that would ensure the Eagles safe passage into the Champions League is Dortmund failing to beat Kiel, or if Frankfurt were to lose by one goal and BVB to win by just a single goal.

After that, the possible outcomes become a touch complicated - but the bottom line will likely see Eintracht and Freiburg going all out for victory in a winner-takes-all battle.

"I think I’ve been at Eintracht 13 years now and I can’t remember going into the final matchday with everything decided," Frankfurt's goalkeeper and captain Kevin Trapp said. "This is Eintracht Frankfurt and it’s hard on your nerves, but I’m convinced we’ll make it in the end," the 34-year-old added.

"We’d have all taken our current position heading into the final day of the season," coach Toppmöller added. "We’re in a better position than Freiburg, but we still won’t be playing for a draw and want to finish the job there," the tactician continued. "[Champions League qualification] is still in our hands. Maybe this is just the kind of challenge the team needs to grow more quickly."

Another pro-Eintracht scenario exists whereby BVB could win by 2-0 and Eintracht lose by a single goal in a very-high scoring game (we're talking 6-5 or higher here) in the Black Forest, yet as Toppmöller said, the boys from Mainhatten will have only one thing on their minds come kick-off time.

Eintracht's challenge will be significant, not least because Freiburg are in superb form, Julian Schuster's men having taken 13 of a possible 15 points from their last five unbeaten games.

Indeed, only Dortmund can boast a similar run in the Bundesliga of late. Freiburg have never before qualified for the Champions League but would do so this weekend should they win. Victory would see the boys from Breisgau end the campaign in third, matching their highest-ever top-flight finish achieved back in 1995.

After recently guaranteeing at least a place in the UEFA Europa League, Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu said, "This is outstanding; we're thrilled and incredibly proud." Yet the young custodian summed up his teammates' hunger for more when adding, "But it's not over yet, we mustn't forget that."

Coach Schuster was equally forthright, pointing to the recent 2-2 draw against Bayer Leverkusen, when the Werkself's Jonathan Tah only managed to equalise in second-half stoppage time. "We still have our own home game where we can show, as we did [against Leverkusen], that we can make life difficult for big clubs," Freiburg's boss said.

A Freiburg draw combined with Dortmund failing to win would also see the former make history. A BVB loss against Kiel - whom the Black-and-Yellows have never beaten in the Bundesliga - would favour Saturday's hosts at the Europa-Park Stadion too, regardless of the result there.

Yet the fifth-placed Die Schwarzgelben are hardly contemplating the latter scenario ahead of their encounter with the relegated Storks, particularly with coach Niko Kovač insisting: "I demand that we approach every game as if it were a Champions League match."

That said, goalkeeper Gregor Kobel issued a warning prior to Saturday's encounter against Marcel Rapp's side. "The pressure is still on us," the shot-stopper said. "Everyone expects us to win against Kiel. Opponents like that and games like that are almost the toughest."

BVB fans will know by now that should their side produce a win by three goals or more, then Dortmund are returning to the Champions  League no matter what happens in Freiburg on the last day.

A two-goal winning margin might also suffice for Borussia, should Freiburg fail to win by the unlikely elevated scorelines of 6-5 or 7-6, etc. If Kovač's side triumph and Freiburg fail to do so, the Black-and-Yellows will take fourth.

"We're playing well, we're winning games and that's the most important thing," forward Karim Adeyemi said ahead of Saturday's final day of drama. "We're fifth, and it looks like we'll be in the Europa League," the Germany international continued.

"But, of course, we hope to win next week and still finish fourth, that's always been our goal." BVB's Waldemar Anton kept things a little more succinct, saying, "We need a win on the last matchday, then we'll see what our opponents do."

With a 19-goal advantage over Freiburg, a BVB draw against Kiel combined with a loss for Schuster's side would also serve to leapfrog Dortmund into fourth. A Dortmund win by a lower margin than three goals combined with Freiburg beating Eintracht by more than a goal would see SCF and BVB make it at Frankfurt's expense. A scenario that seems so unlikely just a few games ago.

The permutations are many, but you can count on bundesliga.com to keep you in the know as the goals go in and the positions change on a blockbuster Saturday that begins at 3.30pm CEST.

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