Excitement guaranteed: With VfL Osnabrück, SV Wehen Wiesbaden, 1. FC Saarbrücken and Dynamo Dresden, four teams are fighting for the second direct promotion place and participation in the relegation before the last matchday of the 3rd division.
SV Elversberg can go into the season finale of the 3rd division quite relaxed. The club from Saarland made promotion to the second Bundesliga already last matchday. The team has 71 points on the account.
Second and one point worse is SC Freiburg II. As the second team of a Bundesliga club, the team is not allowed to be promoted at all. That’s why third place in the table is enough for direct promotion and fourth place for relegation.
Four teams are fighting for these places before the last matchday: VfL Osnabrück (67), SV Wehen Wiesbaden (67), 1. FC Saarbrücken (66) and Dynamo Dresden (66). Promotion, relegation or further 3rd league? Everything is still possible for all four teams.
What unites the quartet – it plays together at home. Osnabrück has to play against Borussia Dortmund II, Wehen Wiesbaden is expecting Hallesche FC, Saarbrücken is playing against Viktoria Köln and Dresden has to deal with VfB Oldenburg.
Osnabrück has it in hand but needs goals
So Osnabrück is in the “pole position”, has it in his own hands and just needs to win. You would think so, but it’s not that simple. That shows a look at the goal difference. Osnabrück is at +20 and Wiesbaden at +19. Plain text: A 2-0 win against Dortmund, for example, would not be enough for direct promotion should Wehen Wiesbaden win 3-0 against Halle. Even then, the Hessians would be better off because of the higher number of goals.
Osnabrück’s Sven Köhler is accordingly highly motivated: “It’s just an outstanding starting position. You have a home game against Dortmund, where everything is at stake, you can crown the whole season. I don’t know, if you could imagine something like that, such a heart-stopping final, then it’s probably right the.”
Dresden needs a little miracle
It is similarly tight in terms of goal difference between Saarbrücken (+24) and Dresden (+20). If the Saxons want direct promotion, then a lot has to happen. A win is needed and the other three teams must not win their games. Dynamo may have gambled away the rise on Monday. Coach Markus Anfang’s team lost 4-1 to SV Meppen, who had already been relegated, and missed out on third place. “Anything is possible in football. We still believe in our chance and will do everything to achieve it.”said Captain Tim Knipping
One thing is clear: For Osnabrück and Wiesbaden the relegation place, which then leads to two promotion games against the 16th of the second Bundesliga, would probably be a disappointment. Saarbrücken and Dresden, on the other hand, would probably be extremely satisfied with fourth place.
Relegation battle decided, Meppen hopes
Back to SV Elversberg. For the Saarlanders, the game at FC Ingolstadt is of course still about the championship. The team is only one point ahead of SC Freiburg II, who play against SV Meppen at home.
As 17th in the table, like SpVgg Bayreuth, FSV Zwickau and VfB Oldenburg, he has already been relegated, but he will still hang in there properly. Because for Lower Saxony it’s still about keeping exactly this 17th place. Meppen is currently two points ahead of Oldenburg.
Background. If another club does not get a license for the coming season, then the 17th could secure the third division at the “green table” in the end. It was the same in the 2020/21 season. At that time, Meppen was relegated to 17th place in the Regionalliga Nord. Since KFC Uerdingen 05 did not receive a license for the 2021/22 season, Meppen stayed in.