Football
ESPN staff 7y

Hamburg beat Wolfsburg to seal survival, Dortmund grab UCL spot

Luca Waldschmidt scored one day after his 21st birthday for Hamburg to clinch Bundesliga survival with a late 2-1 win over Wolfsburg on the final day of the season.

Filip Kostic, who dragged Hamburg level following Robin Knoche's powerful first-half header, crossed for Waldschmidt to head the home side's winner with two minutes remaining.

That results means Wolfsburg face a two-leg playoff against the third-place finisher in the second division -- all but certain to be Eintracht Braunschweig -- to determine which side plays in the Bundesliga next season.

Elsewhere, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's late penalty sealed a 4-3 win for Borussia Dortmund against Werder Bremen to guarantee them direct qualification into the Champions League group stages for next season. Hoffenheim, who could only draw at home with Augsburg 0-0, will enter via the qualifiers.

Zlatko Junozovic had put Bremen ahead in the 7th minute before Marco Reus and Aubameyang, with goals in the 32nd and 42nd minutes, had Thomas Tuchel's men ahead at the break.

However, Fin Bartels and Max Kruse scored to put Bremen back in front before Reus and Aubameyang both scored from the spot in the 75th and 89th minutes to secure victory.

Yuya Osako scored one and set up another as Cologne beat Mainz 2-0 to qualify for the Europa League.

Osako laid on a goal for Jonas Hector two minutes before half-time before getting his name on the scoresheet with three minutes of the game remaining to help Cologne finish fifth.

Hertha Berlin sealed the other Europa League place, despite losing 6-2 against Bayer Leverkusen.

Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, Kai Havertz (2), Stefan Kiessling, Charles Aranguiz and Joel Pohjanpalo all scored for Leverkusen, while Mitchell Weiser and Sami Allagui scored late consolations for Hertha.

Bundeslia champions Bayern Munich, who bid farewell to retiring World Cup winners Xabi Alonso and Philipp Lahm before kickoff, ran out 4-1 winners against Freiburg.

Arjen Robben opened the scoring early, but there were to be no further goals until Arturo Vidal scored in the final 20 minutes. Nils Petersen pulled one back against his former side, before Franck Ribery and Joshua Kimmich completed the scoring in added time.

In the other games, second-placed RB Leipzig drew 2-2 at Eintracht Frankfurt, Schalke drew at relegated Ingolstadt 1-1, and Borussia Moenchengladbach were held by relegated Darmstadt 2-2.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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