The ups & downs across Europe

As we near the final few games of the campaign, teams across Europe are learning their fate for next season. With multiple teams already having their destiny confirmed, now’s the time to catch up on who’s been promoted, relegated, and still fighting to determine their place.

Fabregas’ Como achieve promotion

Starting off in Italy, this weekend two teams in Serie B achieved promotion to the Serie A, Parma returning after just three seasons away and Como returning to the big time after over two decades. Congratulations goes out to Rezzil investors Cesc Fabregas and Thierry Henry who’ve helped get Como back to the top division after a long wait for fans of the side. Cesc has been part of the coaching team at Como this season, playing a huge role in the side’s successful campaign, and I for one cannot wait to see them in the Serie A next season! 

They’ll be taking the place of Salernitana who’s season ended a couple of weeks ago now in terms of having anything to fight for. Who else will go down is still up in the air however, with Sassoulo and Udinese currently sitting in the drop zone but only five points separating the six sides from fourteenth to nineteenth with two game weeks to play… anything could happen! 

Playing for the play-offs

Over in Germany, with the relegation of Darmstadt already confirmed weeks ago, it’s been a fight between four clubs to see who will survive, who’ll be in the play-off, and who will drop down into the 2. Bundesliga. With only one game to play Kӧln’s only chance of survival is making it to the play-off place. Union Berlin currently sit there in sixteenth and will be hoping they can get a win at home to Freiburg to keep them up. 

Union needs to win, and hope Mainz can’t get anything from Wolfsburg, or Bochum lose by enough goals to Werder Bremen to keep Berlin up. It’s hard to predict but form would have Mainz staying up, they’ve been unbeaten now since their 8-1 hammering away to Bayern! Whoever ends up in the play-off will face Fortuna Dusseldorf who confirmed their spot this weekend after their draw to Holstein Kiel. Kiel themselves were promoted along with St. Pauli this weekend, it’s now a battle between them on the final day to see who will lift the title!

Spanish survival and French fight

It’s a little quieter in terms of news from France and Spain, both have sides confirmed heading down; Clermont Foot, Granada, and Almería respectively. While we await who will come up from La Liga 2 and only AJ Auxerre have currently been confirmed as promoted for the 2024/25 campaign in France. 

In terms of who’s heading down. Lorient can only survive via the play-offs but need results and goal difference to go their way to make it to sixteenth place. While Metz are unlikely to get a big enough win to get them out of the play-off place as they face champions PSG.

In Spain, with three games still left, it looks like it’ll be Cádiz who go down although this could change if they get another win to follow on from this weekend’s 1-0 victory over Getafe.