The Essentials: Matchday 34
Bayern get their party on, Bremen scramble to safety and Stuttgart go down: the final round of fixtures of the 2015/16 campaign was certainly an emotional one.
1) Championship party in Munich
bundesliga.com outlines the ten biggest talking points from Matchday 34...
FC Bayern München kicked-off their title-winning celebrations by beating bottom club Hannover 96, paving the way for an afternoon of partying. League Association President Dr. Reinhard Rauball and DFL CEO Christian Seifert handed over the Meisterschale to the Bundesliga champions after Pep Guardiola signed off with an 82nd league win in his 102nd encounter, picking up 257 of 306 possible points (84 per cent of the total available).
2) Lewandowski breaks the 30-goal mark
Robert Lewandowski scored the opener in Bayern's 3-1 triumph over Hannover, a strike that took him to 30 Bundesliga goals in his 32nd appearance of the season. That figure is all the more astonishing when put into a historical context: the last player to reach the 30-goal boundary was 39 years ago when 1. FC Köln's Dieter Müller hit 34 in 1976 /77. Indeed, the last Bayern player to notch 30 was the legendary Gerd Müller, who did so three years earlier. Furthermore, the 27-year-old ended the 2015/16 campaign as top scorer and also replaced Klass-Jan Huntelaar (29 goals in 2011/12) as the most prolific foreigner in a single season.
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3) Hummels leaves with a 'strange feeling'
Borussia Dortmund captain Mats Hummels has played his final game at the SIGNAL IDUNA PARK in a BVB jersey. "It was a strange feeling to know that I was going out here to warm up for the last time," he said after the 2-2 draw with Köln. "That has been such a big part of my life in recent years that now I feel really empty not to have it any more." The 27-year-old's last match for the club will be in the DFB Cup final next week against future employers FC Bayern.
4) Djilobodji saves Bremen
The Bundesliga history books are already crammed with stories of last-day relegation drama, but a new chapter was penned on Matchday 34 with the clash between SV Werder Bremen and Eintracht Frankfurt. The hosts were 16th going into the game and needed a win to be sure of absolute safety, but Frankfurt were just a point and a place better off, with a draw enough for them to stay up. Cue a full-blooded relegation scrap that provided a sensational twist right at the end, as Papy Djilobodji slid in at the back post to give Werder the win and lift them clear – condemning their opponents to the play-offs instead.
5) Stuttgart relegated after 39 years
The result in Bremen meant that VfB Stuttgart would have been relegated automatically even if they had beaten VfL Wolfsburg. However, that never appeared likely in VfB's 3-1 defeat, which confirmed their demotion to the second tier for the first time in 39 uninterrupted years in the top flight. No club has in Bundesliga history has ever gone down after such a prolonged stay in Germany's top division. "We deserved to be relegated after a season in which we started catastrophically," said sporting director Robin Dutt. "We got back on track for a while, but lost our way again in the final third of the campaign."
6) Goalkeeping merry-go-round
No fewer than ten reserve goalkeepers were given a run-out on the final day of the season, with Thomas Kessler, Tom Mickel, Tobias Sippel, Lukasz Zaluska, Koen Casteels, Jens Grahl, Dario Kresic, David Yelldell, Sven Ulreich and Alexander Nübel all donning their gloves on Saturday. Yet it was nevertheless a serial record-breaker who set a new Bundesliga best-mark, as Bayern's Manuel Neuer kept a clean sheet for the 21st time this season before being substituted off in the 51st minute.
7) Season ends too soon for Hahn
Andre Hahn's remarkable run of form continued for Borussia Mönchengladbach on Saturday, with the 26-year-old heading in the side's second in a 2-0 win away to SV Darmstadt 98. It was his sixth goal in his last seven outings, and eighth overall in a campaign in which he made just seven starts. It was therefore understandable that the attacker was disappointed there are no more games to play this term. "For me the season's just getting going," he said. "It's a shame it's already over."
8) Sane on target in bittersweet finale for Schalke
FC Schalke 04 said goodbye to head coach Andre Breitenreiter and sporting director Horst Heldt at the weekend, but did so in style with a 4-1 victory away to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Leroy Sane was the driving force behind the win, which lifted the Royal Blues to fifth and therefore gives them an automatic place in next season's UEFA Europa League. The 20-year-old attacker won 52 per cent of his challenges, made more sprints than anyone else (33) and crowned a superb individual display with an eye-catching goal.
9) Aranguiz lays down marker
Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s Charles Aranguiz has form on his side as he prepares to help Chile defend their Copa America title this summer. The 27-year-old midfielder had to wait until Matchday 28 to make his Werkself debut due to injury, but has played in every match since and concluded his maiden Bundesliga campaign by scoring in successive matches against Gladbach and FC Ingolstadt 04.
10) Weigl sets new record
Borussia Dortmund midfielder Julian Weigl set a new Bundesliga record for most touches in a single game during BVB’s 2-2 draw with Köln (214). The youngster broke FC Bayern counterpart Xabi Alonso’s previous best-mark of 204, which curiously enough also came in a match against Köln back in September 2014.