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BERLIN. — Thirty-one years after they were crowned soccer champions of Europe, Hamburg could suffer the embarrassment of a first relegation from the German Bundesliga today.
The 127-year-old club head into the final weekend and a trip to Mainz in third from bottom place on 27 points, one ahead of Nuremberg and two in front of basement club Eintracht Braunschweig.

The bottom two sides will be relegated automatically with the third-bottom side facing a relegation play-off against the third-placed side in the second division.
It’s all a far cry from Hamburg’s glory days when Felix Magath, now the manager of relegated English Premier League side Fulham, grabbed the only goal in the German side’s 1-0 final win over Juventus to lift the European Cup in 1983.

That was a side coached by legendary Austrian Ernst Happel, the man who led the Dutch to the 1978 World Cup final in Argentina and who won league titles in four different countries.

In stark contrast, the Hamburg of 2013/2014 are already on their third coach after Mirko Slomka took over in February.
In a reflection of the instability, Thorsten Fink had only lasted until September while Bert van Marwijk, the former Dutch national team coach, was axed after the winter break.

Slomka, who has won just three of his 12 games in charge, is used to flirting with last-moment success and failure.

Fixtures
Today (all 3:30pm): Bayer Leverkusen v Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich v Stuttgart, Augsburg v Frankfurt, Hanover 96 v SC Freiburg, Hertha Berlin v Borussia Dortmund, Hoffenheim v Eintracht Braunschweig, Mainz v Hamburg, Schalke v Nuremberg, Wolfsburg v Borrusia Moenchengladbach

German Bundesliga table
Note: Top three qualify directly for the Champions League, fourth goes into the play-offs, fifth, sixth and seventh into Europa League. The bottom two sides are relegated and the team finishing 16th has a two-legged play-off against the side which finishes third in the second division. — AFP.