VfB Stuttgart host Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday in a match with final-day weight in the race for Champions League qualification. Stuttgart and Leverkusen are level on 58 points before the closing stretch, and only one team from the trio that also includes TSG 1899 Hoffenheim is expected to make it through.
The stakes sharpened on Thursday evening, when the hope that two of the three clubs could reach the Champions League ended and no extra fifth Bundesliga place was opened up, even after SC Freiburg reached a European final for the first time. Leverkusen arrive after a 4:1 win over RB Leipzig, who are third on 62 points, and the numbers leave little room for error: Leverkusen carry a plus 23 goal difference, Stuttgart sit at plus 20 and Hoffenheim at plus 16.
Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß said the meeting with Leverkusen is about a great deal and that everyone in the stadium knows it. He also said the key question will be what a team is ready to give, possibly even beyond the limits it has set for itself. Leverkusen coach Kasper Hjulmand said his side has had a superb week and is going into the game with plenty of anticipation, adding that it is heading into the contest with a real push.
The money only underlines why Saturday matters. Champions League start money is 18.6 million euros, compared with 4.3 million euros for the Europa League, while a Champions League win is worth 2.1 million euros and a Europa League win 450,000 euros. Bayer would collect 11 million euros for reaching the round of 16 in the Champions League, while Stuttgart would take 1.75 million euros in the Europa League.
Stuttgart chief executive Alexander Wehrle said a club like Dortmund is still ahead of Stuttgart in revenue because it keeps playing in the Champions League year after year, and he argued that any extra income from the competition would be handled prudently. Stuttgart would not do anything crazy, he said, even if the club were to plan with the additional revenue over years or decades. That financial gap is the backdrop to a sporting duel that could decide far more than one place in the table.
For Stuttgart, national team striker Deniz Undav is part of the push. For Leverkusen, top scorer Patrik Schick remains the reference point. By Saturday evening, one of these clubs will have taken a major step toward the Champions League, and the other will be left to measure how much that one result cost.
