Sleeping giants win promotion as Hamburg miss out

By Andrew Lord

24 May 2022

Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen are both back in the Bundesliga after just one season in the second division. But Hamburg will have to play their fifth season in a row in the second tier after a 2-1 aggregate defeat in the relegation play-off against Hertha Berlin, another sleeping giant of German football.

Felix Magath was hired as Hertha Berlin trainer with the task of keeping the club in the top flight and he achieved the objective despite finishing third bottom of the Bundesliga. The Berlin club were beaten 1-0 in the home leg of the relegation play-off against Hamburg. But the club turned it around with a 2-0 win in Hamburg.

Magath had piled the pressure on Hamburg before the second leg, telling reporters: “At the moment, we’re out. So we can only win. Hamburg have something to lose. The pressure is on them now, not us.”

As expected, Magath left the club immediately after the play-off victory, telling Sky: “That’s it. My job is over. I’m glad that we stayed in the Bundesliga.” The 68-year-old told reporters he was going to head home and chop wood. Sportbild has reported that Magath will receive a bonus worth two million euros after saving Hertha Berlin from relegation.

Magath has never been relegated in his long managerial career, which includes the league and cup double on two occasions with Bayern Munich and the league title with Wolfsburg, and he has previously rescued three clubs from relegation: Frankfurt in 2000, Stuttgart a year later and Wolfsburg in 2011.

Schalke and Bremen back in the top flight

Schalke 04 won the second division title, while Bremen secured automatic promotion after finishing in second place. Schalke confirmed the title victory after beating St. Pauli 3-2. After the game Schalke trainer Mike Büskens said: “That was our dream. You just have to fight for dreams, there are no gifts in this game. I have great respect for this team, the effort they put in was amazing. Just unbelievable.”

Schalke striker Simon Terodde topped the goalscoring charts with 30 goals and earned himself a place in the German national squad for the Nations League fixtures this June. The 34-year-old striker finished eight goals ahead of Hamburg’s Robert Glatzel.

After Werder Bremen secured promotion to the Bundesliga, trainer Ole Werner was already looking forward to the new season: “We are going to play teams with better players, that isn’t a secret. Nevertheless, we have to continue to stand up for the identity we have worked so hard to build. We want to play attacking football, we don’t want to hide. We certainly aren’t going to have 65% possession every week, perhaps sometimes just 40 or 45%. But even then there will be plenty of Werder Bremen on show. We want to remain true to ourselves as often as possible.”

Kaiserslautern return to the second division

And another sleeping giant has celebrated promotion this season. Kaiserslautern beat Dynamo Dresden 2-0 on aggregate to secure a return to the second division following four years in the third tier of German football. The former German champions drew 0-0 at home in a nervy first leg, but a 2-0 win in the away leg means Dynamo Dresden return to division 3 after just one season in the second flight.

Kaiserslautern had finished in third place behind champions Magdeburg and Eintracht Braunschweig.

Kaiserslautern trainer Dirk Schuster knew the significance of the victory for the club’s fans: “The whole region had yearned for this, you could sense it. People only had one objective, they wanted out of the third division and I’m very proud that we were able to give them this gift.”

The question for Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen is whether they can hold their own in the Bundesliga next season or if they will struggle.

Hertha Berlin will need to make big improvements to avoid a repeat of this season. Manager Fredi Bobic said that the relegation play-off demonstrated that this is now the final chance for the club.

Hamburg will be hoping it is fifth time lucky as they attempt to regain their place in the top flight. Their task will be made easy by the absence of Schalke and Bremen and the relegation of Armenia Bielefeld and Greuther Fürth.