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BERLIN - Duisburg and Hansa Rostock were relegated from the Bundesliga on Saturday while champions Bayern are on the verge of the record for the least amount of league goals conceded in a season.
After they both spent just one season in Germany's top flight, Duisburg were condemned to the second division after they lost 3-2 at home to champions Bayern, while Hansa Rostock's 2-1 defeat by Bayer Leverkusen sent them down.
Nuremberg - German Cup winners in 2007 - have one game left to save themselves following their 1-0 defeat at Hertha Berlin.
Either Nuremberg or Arminia Bielefeld will be the third side to be relegated next weekend.
Energie Cottbus made sure they will stay in the Bundesliga with a shock 2-0 win at home to Hamburg.
Having been confirmed as Bundesliga champions last weekend, Bayern raced into a 3-0 lead only to concede two second half goals and had to cling on to their slender lead for a 3-2 win.
Bayern have conceded 20 goals this season and are one game away from breaking Werder Bremen's record of 22 for the lowest number of goals leaked in a season.
Munich took an early lead at Duisburg when midfielder Andreas Ottl unleashed a right-footed shot from 21 metres after just three minutes.
Germany striker Lukas Podolski netted twice in two minutes to put the champions out to a 3-0 lead after just 20 minutes.
But Duisburg fought back with two second half goals to put the champions under pressure at 3-2 with more than half an hour remaining.
Werder Bremen remain second in the league behind Bayern after their 6-1 hammering of Hanover 96.
Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida opened the scoring with a 14th minute goal, but the second half turned into a goal feast in Bremen before Hanover grabbed a consolation goal on the final whistle.
And third-placed Schalke - just two points behind - kept up the pressure on Bremen with a hard-fought 1-0 win at home to Eintracht Frankfurt.
Dark horses VfL Wolfsburg are on the verge of a UEFA Cup berth after their 4-0 humbling of VfB Stuttgart.
The hosts took the lead when Brazilian Marcelinho netted after 16 minutes and things quickly went bad to worse when Stuttgart were reduced to 10-men after Fernando Meira was sent off after 18 minutes.
With four sides - Wolfsburg, Stuttgart, Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg - all locked on 51 points and just two UEFA Cup places available, it will all be decided on the last day of the season next Saturday.
- AFP /ls
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