Although the Bundesliga season may be over, not everything has been decided. There is still a final European place up for grabs which will be determined by Saturday’s DFB-Pokal final.
On Saturday, the 13th place in the 2.Bundesliga, Kaiserslautern face Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen in the DFB-Pokal final and the final big game in the German football season. The DFB-Pokal usually offers teams a place in the Europa League, so if Kaiserslautern win on Saturday they will be in the Europa League next season.
A win in the Pokal final will also result in a rematch between these two teams in the curtain raiser for next season the DFL Super Cup.
However, two teams will benefit from a Leverkusen win in the DFB Pokal. The first will be Heidenheim. If Leverkusen beat Kaiserslautern then Heidenheim will receive a Conference League place next season. This is because they finished in their first season ever in the Bundesliga.
On the final day they beat 1.FC Köln 4-1 while Union Berlin’s late winner against Freiburg meant Heidenehim were able to leapfrog the team from the Blackforest.
The other team to benefit from a Leverkusen Pokal win will be VfB Stuttgart. On the final day, they leapfrogged Bayern Munich to finish second meaning they could potentially match up with Leverkusen in the DFL Super Cup.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
