Euro Lower League Week – Kaiserslautern fall at the final hurdle

France

The final relegation place was the only issue still to be sorted going into the last round of fixtures, with Le Mans and Laval battling to avoid the drop and in Le Mans’ case, possible extinction. Both sides grabbed victories, but with Laval sitting two points ahead, it is Le Mans who drop to the third tier and face an uncertain future. Le Mans beat Lens 2-1 but Laval’s 3-2 win over a Chateauroux side who went the whole season without recording an away win meant they were safe.

Monaco had already won the title, and Nantes along with Guingamp had already secured promotion but with Nantes held 2-2 at Istres and Guingamp keeping up their strong home form with a win over Dijon, it is Nantes who drop to third place one point behind Guingamp, who complete a remarkable season in style. Nantes finished six points ahead of fourth placed Caen.

Germany

Ariel Borysiuk of Kaiserslautern reacts after the Bundesliga Playoff Second Leg match between 1. FC Kaiserslautern and 1899 Hoffenheim

Hertha Berlin and Eintracht Braunschweig finished in the automatic promotion places, with Kaiserslautern beating FSV Frankfurt and Koln to the playoff spot where they faced Hoffenheim, who avoided automatic relegation from Bundesliga with a last day win at Borussia Dortmund. Kaiserslautern travelled the 50 or so miles to Hoffenheim for the first leg and were beaten 3-1. Despite having plenty of the ball in the second leg, Kaiserslautern failed to seriously test the visiting keeper and a much classier Hoffenheim side won 2-1 in Kaiserslautern, giving them a 5-2 aggregate win. They keep their top flight place as the Kaiserslautern fans roared on their side right until the end but they stay in 2.BL next season.

Two of the sides promoted last season went straight back down to 3.Liga. Sandhausen and Jahn Regensburg will be replaced by Karlsruher and Arminia Bielefeld. The relegation playoff place was between Osnabruck and Dynamo Dresden. The first leg was won by 3.Liga side Osnabruck 1-0 and they travelled to Dresden for the second leg where a strong performance from the home side gave them a deserved 2-0 win and a place in next season’s 2.BL. Cristian Fiel finished off a slick move with a 20 yard thunderbolt to open the scoring and Idir Ouali grabbed what proved to be the vital goal in the second half when he tapped home after great work from Tobias Kempe amid joyous scenes in front of almost 30000 fans.

Holland

Go Ahead Eagles join Cambuur in next seasons Eredivisie and will be replaced by VVV Venlo and Willem II. Eagles finished in sixth place, 12 points behind Volendam who finished in second place but a 3-1 final aggregate win over Volendam gave them promotion. Go Ahead entered the playoffs in the first round, beating Dordrecht before confirming VVV Venlo’s relegation with a comfortable 4-0 aggregate win before eliminating Volendam. Sparta Rotterdam lost out in the other final when a late Fleddereus goal gave Roda JC a 3-2 aggregate victory and salvaged their Eredivisie place.