Champions League and relegation showdowns loom on Bundesliga’s final day

By: James Ellingworth, The Associated Press Posted: 4:07 AM CDT Thursday, May. 14, 2026

Two dramatic three-way showdowns will dominate the last day of the Bundesliga season Saturday as Stuttgart leads a race for Champions League qualification and former champion Wolfsburg fights to avoid an historic relegation.

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The top three spots are already clear after Bayern Munich sealed the title last month, while Borussia Dortmund is runner-up yet again and Leipzig is third.

Key matchups

Stuttgart's Deniz Undav celebrates after scoring during the German Bundesliga soccer match between Bayer Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart, in Stuttgart, Germany, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (Tom Weller/dpa via AP)

Stuttgart has the fourth Champions League spot for now. Hoffenheim and Bayer Leverkusen want it.

Stuttgart’s final game is a tough one at Eintracht Frankfurt. A win there would almost certainly guarantee fourth spot. If Stuttgart drops points, Hoffenheim can snatch fourth with a better result at Borussia Moenchengladbach and return to the Champions League for the first time since 2017-18.

Leverkusen needs to beat Hamburger SV and hope Stuttgart and Hoffenheim lose.

Champion of the Bundesliga in 2008-09, Wolfsburg hasn’t been outside the top flight since 1997. It’s one of the bottom three teams, all level on points, chasing one shot at survival.

The teams in 17th and 18th — St. Pauli and Heidenheim — are relegated automatically. The side in 16th, Wolfsburg for now, goes into a promotion-relegation playoff against a second-division team.

Wolfsburg visits St. Pauli on Saturday and a loss for either means relegation. Heidenheim could yet leapfrog both with a win at home to Mainz.

The second division heads into its final day Sunday with promotion at stake. Schalke is already returning to the Bundesliga as champion but Elversberg, Hannover and Paderborn are level on points chasing the second spot.

Elversberg, from a tiny town near the French border, has a goal-difference advantage and a win over relegated Preussen Muenster should do it.

Players to watch

If Stuttgart can make it to the Champions League, it’ll be thanks to Deniz Undav, whose 19 goals are second only to Harry Kane in the Bundesliga this season.

Hoffenheim’s Champions League push has depended on Andrej Kramaric, who’s played more than 300 games for the club, combining with young forward Fisnik Asllani.

England captain Kane’s shot at Robert Lewandowski’s single-season Bundesliga scoring record may have gone after Bayern opted to focus on keeping him fit for the Champions League, but he can still sign off in style.

Kane has 33 goals for Bayern in the Bundesliga and 55 in all competitions ahead of hosting Cologne on Saturday.

Who’s out

Bayern’s Canadian left back Alphonso Davies has a hamstring injury less than a month from the World Cup. His clubmate Serge Gnabry has ruled himself out of playing at the tournament for Germany after a thigh muscle tear.

Off the field

It’s the last game in charge for coach Marie-Louise Eta, the first woman to become a head coach in any of Europe’s five biggest men’s leagues when she took interim charge of Union Berlin, where she got her first win last week.

Hosting Augsburg on Saturday is the last game in Eta’s five-game spell in charge. She takes over Union’s women’s team next season.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer