The climax of the 2008-9 Bundesliga season rates as the most dramatic in many a year. For the first time in seven seasons, three teams go into the last day with a chance of winning the title. Leaders VfL Wolfsburg are unquestionably best-placed to claim the first championship triumph in their history, but Bayern and VfB Stuttgart can also still snatch the shield at the last minute.
In the Bundesliga’s 45-year history, the race has gone down to the last day on 22 occasions, with the leaders after Matchday 33 being caught and passed at the death five times. Bayern have emerged from that scenario with the trophy twice, and Munich were also involved in the most last-gasp finish of them all. fcbayern.de looks back at the most tense and thrilling last days in the history of the German top flight.
Three-way fight: The last day has started with three teams capable of winning the title on five occasions, although on three of those (1967, 1977 and 1984) at least one of the clubs was in the same position as Hertha Berlin now, where a vastly inferior goal difference made their chances of glory more theoretical than real. However, it has been a genuine three-way tussle on two occasions, VfB Stuttgart winning in 1992, and Borussia Dortmund in 2002.
Goal difference: Goal difference has been the deciding factor six times in the league’s 45-year history. In 1984, three clubs - Borussia Mönchengladbach, Hamburger SV, and eventual champions VfB Stuttgart - finished dead level on points.
Sprint finishers: The leaders have been caught and passed on the last day five times. The last-gasp winners were Bayern (1986 and 2000), Borussia Dortmund (1995), VfB Stuttgart (1992) und Borussia Mönchengladbach (1971).
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