BERLIN (AP) 鈥� Small-town club Elversberg clinched promotion to the Bundesliga for the first time on Sunday by finishing runner-up in Germany鈥檚 second division behind .
Early goals from Bambas茅 Cont茅 and David Mokwa, then another from Mokwa, gave Elversberg a 3-0 win at home over last-place Preu脽en M眉nster, enough for the team to finish ahead of Paderborn on goal difference.
Elversberg will be the 59th club to play in the top division since the Bundesliga’s formation in 1963.
鈥淚t’s hard to grasp what just happened here,鈥� Elversberg forward Luca Schnellbacher said. 鈥淚t feels like a dream. I’d never have imagined that (Bayern Munich star) Harry Kane will be walking out at this ground.鈥�
Elversberg, a town with 13,000 inhabitants in the southwest German state of Saarland, narrowly lost out on promotion last year in a , which was on Saturday.
Elversberg was playing at fourth-tier level until 2022, when it won promotion to the third division, where the team only spent one season before earning promotion to the second in 2023.
Hannover empty-handed
Three teams were level going into the second division’s final round, with both Hannover and Paderborn hoping for an unlikely favor from already relegated M眉nster against Elversberg, which had the better goal difference.
Hannover was on course to finish third for the promotion playoff when it was leading Nuremberg 3-2, but Luka Lochoshvili scored late for the visitors to let Paderborn move above Hannover into third place with a 2-0 win at Darmstadt.
As a result, Paderborn will face Wolfsburg in a two-leg playoff to decide which plays in the Bundesliga next season.
Wolfsburg, which finished third from bottom in the Bundesliga on Saturday, will host the first leg of their playoff on Thursday.
鈥淲e鈥檙e all a bit speechless,鈥� Hannover captain Enzo Leopold said of letting the playoff spot out of grasp.
D眉sseldorf relegated
Schalke, which clinched promotion and the second division title with two rounds to spare, signed off with a 1-0 win over Eintracht Braunschweig.
Fortuna D眉sseldorf was relegated to the third division with a 3-0 loss at Greuther F眉rth. F眉rth鈥檚 three goals were enough to pass D眉sseldorf on goal difference and clinch the relegation playoff place.
Braunschweig finished above F眉rth on goal difference and can look forward to another season in the second division.
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