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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.
Italy
Livorno head coach Davide Nicola (C) celebrates after scoring a goal during the Serie B playoff final match between Empoli FC and AS Livorno
The finalists of the Italian playoffs are now known as Livorno, who finished in third place, will face Empoli who ended fourth in a two legged game with the winners entering next season’s Serie A. Livorno met Brescia in the playoffs and progressed thanks to two 1-1 draws (Livorno qualifying for the final due to the fact they ended the season above Brescia). The other playoff semi final was between Empoli and Novara and after the first leg ended 1-1, Empoli routed Novara 4-1 in the second leg, meaning they line up against local rivals Livorno. The first leg was played on Wednesday and ended all square thanks to a superb strike from Joseph Duncan earning Livorno a draw and making them big favourites for the return leg this Sunday.
Spain
With Elche already having secured promotion and the title, all eyes are on the race for the other automatic promotion place which, with just two games remaining is between three sides, all of whom won at the weekend. Villarreal beat relegated Xerez 3-2 and remain in second place over Almeria courtesy of a better goal difference (their head to head is level having drawn 1-1 earlier in the season, they meet on the final day). Almeria all but ended Alcorcon’s automatic promotion hopes as Liga Adelante’s leading scorer Charles struck twice in a 3-0 win. Girona keep track with their promotion rivals after Javi Acuna scored the only goal in the 1-0 with over local rivals Barcelona B in front of almost 9000 fans. Girona face Almeria next weekend and are currently just one point behind. Alcorcon are fifth on 66 points, two ahead of Ponferradina who won 2-0 at lowly Murcia and climbed into the last playoff place at the expense of Las Palmas, who were beaten at Mirandes.
Mirandes win over Las Palmas leaves them one place above the drop zone but four points ahead of Racing Santander and five ahead of Huesca and Murcia, so a win over Cordoba next weekend will relegate the tree teams below them regardless of their results. Xerez were relegated several weeks ago and cannot climb off the foot of the table.
