(courtesy of RolStoppable):
RolStoppable said: Bundesliga - Final Matchday Quite the exciting results this Saturday. Bayern gets an easy 4-0 win in Wolfsburg to finish the back half of the season with 49 out of a possible 51 points. Dortmund is a no-show at home against Hoffenheim and falls victim to a Kramaric quadruple pack (0-4). Timo Werner scores a double pack in his last Bundesliga game for Leipzig (2-1 win in Augsburg). Gladbach secures the Champions League with a 2-1 win against Hertha while Leverkusen has to settle for the Europa League (1-0 vs. Mainz). Frankfurt almost gives up a 3-0 halftime lead against Paderborn (3-2 final). Schalke comfortably locks down their worst back half of the season in club history with a listless 0-4 loss in Freiburg. And last but not least, Düsseldorf was unable to score in Berlin against Union in an unfortunate 0-3 loss. Bremen did their homework and wiped the floor with an embarrassing Köln in a dominant 6-1 win, so Werder could have even afforded a draw by Düsseldorf and still pass them in the table. Next week Werder Bremen will play in the relegation playoff against either Heidenheim or Hamburg (will be determined tomorrow when the 2. Bundesliga has its final matchday). Hamburg has the easier opponent tomorrow, so this year's relegation playoff will probably be Bremen vs. Hamburg, a matchup that is only second to Dortmund vs. Schalke in Germany.
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(courtesy of RolStoppable):
RolStoppable on 13 October 2018 at 14:21
Austrian Bundesliga - Matchday 10
As you can tell from the team names, it's allowed to put sponsors in them, unlike in Germany. I watched highlights of matchday 10 because nothing else was on TV at the time, but usually I don't bother. That's because the play is so bad that there are games like Innsbruck vs. LASK that end 1-0 and have Innsbruck's coach say in the interview, "We could capitalize on a severe mistake of LASK's defense and that was basically it, because let's be honest, we didn't get anything going on our own today." So what else to say? Serial champion Red Bull Salzburg is dominating the league yet again with a clean 30 points out of 10 games. If you wonder why Austria has already completed 10 matchdays when Germany is only at 7, it's because there's a longer winter break in Austria. You might also wonder why the ranks in the table are displayed in blue and orange. Austria's league has a new mode this year, because there was an expansion from 10 to 12 teams. Previously all teams played each other four times in the season for a total of 36 matchdays. The new mode has all teams play each other twice and after 22 matchdays the table will get split into a top and bottom half, hence the colors. After 22 matchdays the points of each team will be halved (rounded down if necessary) and then the top 6 will play each other twice and so will the bottom 6; that adds another 10 matchdays for a total of 32. Now you might ask what's the point of the first 22 matchdays when points get halved, and you are right, it's stupid. Funnily enough, the bottom 6 won't only play against relegation over the course of the last 10 matchdays. The team that finishes at the top of the bottom 6 will play for an international spot in a playoff at the end of the season. So you can suck hard for 22 matchdays, benefit from points getting halved, then have a good run late season, finish at the top of the bottom, luck out in the playoffs and play Europa League next season.
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