Written off after the first matchday: That applies to VfL Bochum this season. Of the clubs that have been affected in recent years, one is now playing in the Champions League.
That’s it. It’s their turn this season. They get off.
As many football fans probably said or at least thought after VfL Bochum lost 5-0 at VfB Stuttgart on Saturday (19.08.2023). Even among their own supporters, the clear defeat should have led to the quick verdict.
Other facts and indications are then quickly used in order to know in August what will be decided in May. VfL was eliminated in the first round of the DFB Cup – at third division Arminia Bielefeld. In addition, what has been moved on the transfer market so far was not that exciting either.
One made it to the Champions League
What happened to VfL Bochum after the start of the 2023/24 season has also happened to other relegation candidates in recent years. For some it actually went into the 2nd league, but some are still there or back, one club even plays in the Champions League.
1st matchday 2022/23: FC Augsburg – SC Freiburg 0:4
FC Augsburg has played in the Bundesliga since 2011. Once he made it to the Europa League, but since 2016 the club has finished every season in double digits. That’s what FCA is always called when it comes to relegation candidates, and that was the case before the 2022/23 season. The first matchday confirmed the skeptics. Augsburg lost 4-0 to SC Freiburg. However, the team recovered quickly and won at Bayer Leverkusen on the second day of the game. The beginning reflected the following season of FCA quite well. It went up and down several times, in the end coach Enrico Maassen’s team just barely missed the relegation.
1st matchday 2021/22: VfB Stuttgart – SpVgg Greuther Fürth 5: 1
Promoted teams are usually considered relegation candidates anyway, SpVgg Greuther Fürth was considered a safe candidate in 21/22 because of the small budget and a squad with many relatively unknown players. The prejudice was reinforced after the “Kleeblatt” lost 1:5 at VfB Stuttgart on the first day of the game. The course of the season showed that it would actually only be a short guest appearance. After the first half of the season there were only five points and in the end Greuther Fürth was relegated as bottom of the table.
1st matchday 2021/22: FC Augsburg – TSG Hoffenheim 0: 4
Augsburg also started the 21/22 season with a 0:4 defeat at home. There were also long concerns about relegation, but the situation never got really precarious. Augsburg ended the season in 14th place.
1st matchday 2020/21: FC Bayern Munich – FC Schalke 04 8:0
Schalke’s season started with a 0:8 loss at Bayern Munich and ended in 18th place with 16 points. It was a season as a continuation of the disastrous second half of the previous season.
1st matchday 2019/20: 1. FC Union Berlin – RB Leipzig 0: 4
The story can be told quickly: The promoted team, which almost everyone had said goodbye to the second division after the 4-0 loss to Leipzig, has become a club that now plays in the Champions League.