An overview of how the 2019/2020 2.Bundesliga season finished

Sunday featured the final matches in the 2019/20 season of the wildly entertaining 2.Bundesliga. The league had a surprise winner in Arminia Bielefeld, a classic Hamburg SV collapse in the most important match of the season, and a historical giant in Nürnberg facing the threat of dropping down to the German third division.

Here’s a look at how the table finished and what it means:

The implications:

Champion: Arminia Bielefeld

Promoted to the Bundesliga: Arminia Bielefeld, Stuttgart

Promotion Playoff: Heidenheim

Relegation Playoff: Nürnberg

Relegated: Wehen Wiesbaden, Dynamo Dresden

The Bundesliga will see the return of Arminia Bielefeld and Stuttgart. Bielefeld found themselves down in the 3.Liga earlier this decade, but now they have won the 2.Bundesliga in a trot. For Stuttgart, the German giants are back in the first division after only a year gone.

In the funniest turn of events, despite finding themselves in first or second for long stretches of the campaign, Hamburg will play in the 2.Bundesliga again next season. After returning from the COVID-19 break, HSV picked up two wins out of eight matches, and those came against the two relegated sides in Wehen Wiesbaden and Dynamo Dresden. However, let’s set the scene for what unfolded on the final day of the season.

After falling into fourth place, HSV needed to beat Sandhausen while Heidenheim lost to top of the table Bielefeld in order for HSV to get into the Promotion Playoff spot. Heidenheim set the stage perfectly for this to happen by going out and losing 0-3; however, in just an unbelievably “Boy, that’s Hamburg for you!” turn of events, HSV lost 1-5! It was just an incredible capitulation for a club trying to find it’s way back to the Bundesliga.

At the bottom of the table, Dynamo Dresden and Wehen Wiesbaden were sent down to the 3.Liga for next season, where they will now become opponents for Bayern Munich II. In more shocking news, Nürnberg find themselves facing possible relegation down into the third division for the first time since the 1996/97 season, but they’ll get the opportunity to save themselves through the Relegation Playoff.