10* Union Berlin Goal Line (9:30 AM ET): It’s all in front of Union on the final matchday of the Bundesliga season. A win here would guarantee the Iron Ones a spot in next year’s Europa League and possibly their highest finish ever in the German top flight. It has been a breakout campaign for this side in 2021/22. Union comes into Saturday sixth in the table, only one point behind Freiburg and three behind fourth place Leipzig. Because of goal differential, Union has no chance of overtaking Leipzig for the fourth Champions League spot, but they’ll want to leave nothing to chance here as 7th place Koln sits just two points back with a relatively similar GD. I think Union will show no mercy on their opponents, who have no reason to be motivated for this fixture. 

Union is unbeaten over its last six Bundesliga matches. Ironically, the only one they didn’t win was against Greuther Furth, who sits at the bottom of the table, ready to be relegated. After that disappointing 1-1 draw, the Iron Ones stormed back to destroy Freiburg 4-1 last week, a massive result for both sides. Now if Freiburg fails to win this week at Leverkusen, Union can jump them into fifth with a win. I’m confident here that the favorite can win this one by multiple goals. 

A big reason for that confidence, as alluded to earlier, is that Bochum has absolutely NOTHING on the line here in this final matchday. Promoted back into the top flight this season, Bochum’s only goal was survival and they achieved that rather easily in what will be a mid-table finish. Bochum is coming off B2B victories, a 4-3 shocker over Dortmund (won on a late penalty after the equalizer came four minutes earlier), then an undeserved 2-1 result last week over relegation threatened Arminia Bielefeld on an 89th minute “own goal.” Their hosts on Saturday, with much to play for, will show no mercy and win by multiple goals. 10* Union Berlin (Goal Line)