Bundesliga playoffs

Bochum v Fortuna Düsseldorf, LIVE from 8.30pm

VFL Bochum suffered a bitter 3-0 defeat against Fortuna Düsseldorf in the first leg of the Bundesliga play-off. The team of Austrian international Kevin Stöger is thus facing relegation ahead of the decisive second leg on Monday. The Bundesliga club put in an anemic and desolate performance and could have lost by an even greater margin. Düsseldorf, on the other hand, can now crown a strong season with promotion. 

After four years in the 2nd division, Fortuna Düsseldorf are on the verge of returning to Germany's top flight. In the relegation first leg at Kevin Stöger's VfL Bochum, coach Daniel Thioune's team won 3:0 (1:0) on Thursday and can seal promotion in front of their own fans on Monday. Düsseldorf's ÖFB international Marlon Mustapha was not in the Bochum squad.

Philipp Hofmann (13') with an own goal, Felix Klaus (64') and Yannik Engelhardt (73') scored the Düsseldorf goals under the watchful eye of German team player and former Bochum player Leon Goretzka, who was not nominated for the home European Championship. Stöger, one of Bochum's best players in the last Bundesliga season, tried hard but was unable to make a decisive impact on the defensively fragile and offensively harmless performance of the sixteenth-placed team in the table.