Bundesliga Relgation Odds

This season has brought a number of surprises at both ends of the Bundesliga table.

Borussia Monchengladbach spent a serious amount of time at the top of the table, Freiburg have challenged for a place in Europe, Union Berlin have made their mark in the division and Werder Bremen are struggling to hold on to their Bundesliga status.

One burning question was to see how Hoffenheim were going to cope with the loss of Julian Nagelsmann to RB Leipzig. His successor, Alfred Schreuder maintained a challenge for a Europa League place but a displeasing home record has meant that the board's patience with the Dutch manager has run short and he parted company with the club this week after 30 Bundesliga games in charge.

The relegation scrap this season has been an intriguing one. Going into the final four games, Paderborn will almost certainly immediately return to the second tier but the question remains as to who will be joining them. There is one more automatic relegation place up for grabs as well as the relegation play-off position and there are a few teams in that mix that could fall into those traps.

We have looked at the current odds provided by Sky Bet, to see which teams could finish in Bundesliga's relegation zone and have their time in the German top-flight cut short.

Despite having great quality in their squad, this season has seen Werder Bremen take a huge fall from last season's 8th placed finish to a position of great danger.

Since the restart, Bremen have shown glimpses of pulling off the great escape with away wins over Freiburg and Schalke. However, their progress has since been hindered with consecutive defeats against Eintracht Frankfurt and Wolfsburg, something that has scuppered their chances of staying up big time.

Die Werderaner have been in the bottom three of the Bundesliga since Matchday 16 just before start of the winter break in December and have only conjured up 11 points during the second half of the campaign but they will most likely view their 1-0 win over Fortuna Dusseldorf in January as the life saver if it means they were to be given a lifeline at the expense of Uwe Rosler's side.

The young manager, Florian Kohfeldt, is about to reach his 100th match in charge of Bremen at the weekend against Paderborn. Despite this season's poor showing, he proved last year that he does have a big future at the highest levels of the game. Remarkably, their 39-year long stay in the Bundesliga is older than Kohfeldt himself and they have only missed one Bundesliga season (1980-81) since its formation in 1963.

With odds of 1/4 for going down, Bremen will need something special if they are going to clamber out of the drop zone.

Similarly to Werder Bremen, Fortuna Dusseldorf have been in the Bundesliga's bottom three places since December. However, they have had a change in fortunes on the pitch after bringing in Uwe Rosler to replace Friedhelm Funkel.

Rosler has been in charge at the Merkur-Spiel Arena for 11 matches and has only lost twice, coming against Borussia Monchengladbach and Bayern Munich. One thing that has prevented them from slipping further down the table is the contribution of 14 league goals from former Burnley striker, Rouwen Hennings. The veteran striker has scored crucial goals in the wins over Mainz, Union Berlin and Schalke and will have a lot to thank him for should they remain in the top flight.

Dusseldorf will probably have mixed feelings about their final few fixtures. Their next two matches consist of challenging games against Dortmund and Leipzig. However, should they end their campaign with positive results against Augsburg and Union Berlin, they might just have enough to see them avoid even the relegation play-off position which would be a huge bonus but with odds of 4/5 to go down, it will be a tough ask.

It has been another season of inconsistencies and alarm bells at the Opel Arena this season.

Sandro Schwarz left by mutual consent after two years at the club following his side's poor start to the campaign, losing eight of their first 11 matches including an 8-0 thumping at Leipzig. New manager, and former Koln boss, Achim Beierlorzer took over but the inconsistencies remained despite getting off to a perfect with a 5-1 win over Hoffenheim. Interestingly, they eventually recorded their first draw of the season in the middle of February.

Currently sitting in 15th place, just above the relegation play-off spot, the carnival club will certainly be looking over their shoulders before the season finishes. They face tough away trips to Dortmund and Leverkusen but have winnable home matches against Augsburg and Werder Bremen. However, the pressure will be on especially if Dusseldorf perform well so last weekend's win over local rivals, Eintracht Frankfurt is looking even more valuable now as they have odds of 13/2 to be relegated.

One player they will undoubtedly be looking towards is Swedish international, Robin Quaison who has bagged 12 goals so far this season and is arguably the best of a bad punch of players in the Mainz squad and certainly looks as if he is capable of a move to a bigger club in the summer.

New manager, Heiko Herrlich has picked up five points from as many matches in charge of Augsburg since replacing Martin Schmidt during the enforced break.

There may be a new face in the dugout but first impressions suggest that the form has remained the more or less the same as what it was. The defeat to Wolfsburg in May would have hit the team hard having conceded a last minute winner but they gave the perfect response as they ran out 3-0 winners against a Schalke team that are still in freefall.

Die Fuggerstadter are currently in 13th place, ahead of Union Berlin on goal difference. The pressure will be still be on Herrlich's side going into the run in. The matches against Mainz and Dusseldorf might look ideal compared to the visits from Hoffenheim and Leipzig but defeats in those former matches could spell great danger for the side that have been in the Bundesliga since 2011. With odds of 10/1 to be relegated, there is certainly an outside chance of it happening.

If they are in need of inspiration, they need to look towards the form that they hit just before the winter break when they gained 16 points from six matches. Philipp Max managed to score six goals in that run and it would have been seven had he not missed an almighty sitter in the 4-0 win over Hertha Berlin.