2017–18 2. Bundesliga

2. Bundesliga
Season	2017–18
Dates	28 July 2017 – 13 May 2018
Champions	Fortuna Düsseldorf
Promoted	Fortuna Düsseldorf; 1. FC Nürnberg
Relegated	Eintracht Braunschweig; 1. FC Kaiserslautern
Matches played	306
Goals scored	843 (2.75 per match)
Top goalscorer	Marvin Ducksch; (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Union Berlin 5–0 Kaiserslautern; Arminia Bielefeld 5–0 FC St. Pauli; Holstein Kiel 5–0 MSV Duisburg
Biggest away win	MSV Duisburg 1–6 1. FC Nürnberg
Highest scoring	1. FC Heidenheim 3–5 Holstein Kiel; Holstein Kiel 6–2 Eintracht Braunschweig
Longest winning run	5 games; Fortuna Düsseldorf
Longest unbeaten run	11 games; 1. FC Nürnberg; Darmstadt 98
Longest winless run	12 games; Darmstadt 98
Longest losing run	4 games; VfL Bochum; Darmstadt 98; MSV Duisburg; Greuther Fürth; 1. FC Kaiserslautern; 1. FC Heidenheim
Highest attendance	50,000; Fortuna Düsseldorf v Holstein Kiel
Lowest attendance	4,354; SV Sandhausen v Arminia Bielefeld
Attendance	5,383,923 (17,595 per match)
	← 2016–17 2018–19 →

The 2017–18 2. Bundesliga was the 44th season of the 2. Bundesliga, the second highest German football league. It began on 28 July 2017 and concluded on 13 May 2018 with the match between VfL Bochum and FC St. Pauli (0:1) and ended with the 34th match day on 13 May 2018. From 19 December 2017 to 23 January 2018, the season was interrupted by a winter break.

The fixtures were announced on 29 June 2017.

Fortuna Düsseldorf secured the direct promotion to the Bundesliga after 32 days of play,1. FC Nürnberg secured promotion one match day later; 1. FC Nürnberg set a new record with its eighth Bundesliga promotion. The championship was decided on the last match day in a direct duel between the two upstarts, which Fortuna Düsseldorf won. Holstein Kiel was able to reach the autumn championship as a starter and placed third one match day before the end, but lost in the relegation games to VfL Wolfsburg. In the relegation battle, after 32 days of play, the first decision was made relatively late with the relegation of 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Until the end, six clubs were at risk of relegation, in the end Eintracht Braunschweig, who was still a participant in the promotion delegation last year, had to be relegated to the 3rd division. FC Erzgebirge Aue had to go into the relegation playoff against Karlsruher SC and were able to secure their stay in the 2. Bundesliga.

Teams

Team changes

Promoted from 2016–17 3. Liga	Relegated from 2016–17 Bundesliga	Promoted to 2017–18 Bundesliga	Relegated to 2017–18 3. Liga	Relegated to Regionalliga Bayern
MSV Duisburg Holstein Kiel Jahn Regensburg	FC Ingolstadt Darmstadt 98	VfB Stuttgart Hannover 96	Würzburger Kickers Karlsruher SC	1860 Munich

Stadiums and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Erzgebirge Aue	Aue	Erzgebirgsstadion	15,711
Arminia Bielefeld	Bielefeld	Schüco-Arena	27,300
VfL Bochum	Bochum	Vonovia-Ruhrstadion	29,299
Eintracht Braunschweig	Braunschweig	Eintracht-Stadion	23,325
Darmstadt 98	Darmstadt	Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor	17,000
Dynamo Dresden	Dresden	DDV-Stadion	32,066
MSV Duisburg	Duisburg	MSV-Arena	31,500
Fortuna Düsseldorf	Düsseldorf	Esprit Arena	54,600
SpVgg Greuther Fürth	Fürth	Sportpark Ronhof	18,500
1. FC Heidenheim	Heidenheim	Voith-Arena	15,000
FC Ingolstadt	Ingolstadt	Audi Sportpark	15,000
1. FC Kaiserslautern	Kaiserslautern	Fritz-Walter-Stadion	49,780
Holstein Kiel	Kiel	Holstein-Stadion	11,386
1. FC Nürnberg	Nuremberg	Max-Morlock-Stadion	50,000
Jahn Regensburg	Regensburg	Continental Arena	15,224
SV Sandhausen	Sandhausen	BWT-Stadion am Hardtwald	12,100
FC St. Pauli	Hamburg	Millerntor-Stadion	29,546
Union Berlin	Berlin	Alte Försterei	22,012

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
Erzgebirge Aue	Hannes Drews	Martin Männel	Nike	WätaS Wärmetauscher Sachsen
Arminia Bielefeld	Jeff Saibene	Julian Börner	Joma	Schüco, JAB Anstoetz Textilien
VfL Bochum	Robin Dutt	Stefano Celozzi	Nike	Trivago, Viactiv Betriebskrankenkasse
Eintracht Braunschweig	Torsten Lieberknecht	Ken Reichel	Erima	SEAT
Darmstadt 98	Dirk Schuster	Aytaç Sulu	Jako	Software AG, ROWE Mineralölwerk
Dynamo Dresden	Uwe Neuhaus	Marco Hartmann	Erima	Feldschlößchen, AOK Plus
MSV Duisburg	Iliya Gruev	Kevin Wolze	Capelli	XTiP, Rhein Power
Fortuna Düsseldorf	Friedhelm Funkel	Oliver Fink	Uhlsport	Orthomol, Toyo Tires Reifen
SpVgg Greuther Fürth	Damir Burić	Balázs Megyeri	Hummel	Hofmann Personal, BVUK – Gruppe Unternehmensberatung
1. FC Heidenheim	Frank Schmidt	Marc Schnatterer	Nike	Hartmann Gruppe, Voith
FC Ingolstadt	Stefan Leitl	Marvin Matip	Adidas	Media Markt, Audi Schanzer Fußballschule
1. FC Kaiserslautern	Michael Frontzeck	Daniel Halfar	Uhlsport	Top12.de
Holstein Kiel	Markus Anfang	Rafael Czichos	Puma	Famila, Lotto Schleswig-Holstein
1. FC Nürnberg	Michael Köllner	Hanno Behrens	Umbro	Nürnberger Versicherung, Godelmann Betonstein
Jahn Regensburg	Achim Beierlorzer	Marco Grüttner	Saller	Netto, Dallmeier electronic
SV Sandhausen	Kenan Kocak	Stefan Kulovits	Puma	Verivox, BWT
FC St. Pauli	Markus Kauczinski	Bernd Nehrig	Under Armour	Congstar, Astra Brauerei
1. FC Union Berlin	André Hofschneider	Felix Kroos	Macron	Layenberger, Koch Automobile

1. ^ On the sleeves.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
FC St. Pauli	Ewald Lienen	Moved to technical director	30 June 2017	Preseason	Olaf Janßen	1 July 2017
Jahn Regensburg	Heiko Herrlich	Signed by Bayer Leverkusen			Achim Beierlorzer
Erzgebirge Aue	Domenico Tedesco	Signed by Schalke 04			Thomas Letsch
VfL Bochum	Gertjan Verbeek	Sacked	11 July 2017		Ismail Atalan	11 July 2017
Erzgebirge Aue	Thomas Letsch		14 August 2017	18th	Robin Lenk (interim)	14 August 2017
FC Ingolstadt	Maik Walpurgis		22 August 2017		Stefan Leitl	22 August 2017
SpVgg Greuther Fürth	János Radoki		28 August 2017		Mirko Dickhaut (interim)	28 August 2017
SpVgg Greuther Fürth	Mirko Dickhaut	End of caretaker	9 September 2017		Damir Burić	9 September 2017
Erzgebirge Aue	Robin Lenk	End of caretaker	8 September 2017	10th	Hannes Drews	8 September 2017
1. FC Kaiserslautern	Norbert Meier	Sacked	20 September 2017	18th	Manfred Paula (interim)	20 September 2017
1. FC Kaiserslautern	Manfred Paula	End of caretaker	27 September 2017	18th	Jeff Strasser	27 September 2017
VfL Bochum	Ismail Atalan	Sacked	9 October 2017	13th	Jens Rasiejewski	9 October 2017
Union Berlin	Jens Keller		4 December 2017	4th	André Hofschneider	4 December 2017
FC St. Pauli	Olaf Janßen		7 December 2017	14th	Markus Kauczinski	7 December 2017
Darmstadt 98	Torsten Frings		9 December 2017	16th	Dirk Schuster	11 December 2017
1. FC Kaiserslautern	Jeff Strasser	Resigned	1 February 2018	18th	Michael Frontzeck	1 February 2018
VfL Bochum	Jens Rasiejewski	Sacked	7 February 2018	14th	Heiko Butscher (interim)	7 February 2018
VfL Bochum	Heiko Butscher	End of caretaker	11 February 2018	14th	Robin Dutt	11 February 2018

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Fortuna Düsseldorf (C, P)	34	19	6	9	57	43	+14	63	Promotion to Bundesliga
2	1. FC Nürnberg (P)	34	17	9	8	61	39	+22	60	Promotion to Bundesliga
3	Holstein Kiel	34	14	14	6	71	44	+27	56	Qualification to promotion play-offs
4	Arminia Bielefeld	34	12	12	10	51	47	+4	48
5	Jahn Regensburg	34	14	6	14	53	53	0	48
6	VfL Bochum	34	13	9	12	37	40	−3	48
7	MSV Duisburg	34	13	9	12	52	56	−4	48
8	Union Berlin	34	12	11	11	54	46	+8	47
9	FC Ingolstadt	34	12	9	13	47	45	+2	45
10	Darmstadt 98	34	10	13	11	47	45	+2	43
11	SV Sandhausen	34	11	10	13	35	33	+2	43
12	FC St. Pauli	34	11	10	13	35	48	−13	43
13	1. FC Heidenheim	34	11	9	14	50	56	−6	42
14	Dynamo Dresden	34	11	8	15	42	52	−10	41
15	Greuther Fürth	34	10	10	14	37	48	−11	40
16	Erzgebirge Aue (O)	34	10	10	14	35	49	−14	40	Qualification to relegation play-offs
17	Eintracht Braunschweig (R)	34	8	15	11	37	43	−6	39	Relegation to 3. Liga
18	1. FC Kaiserslautern (R)	34	9	8	17	42	55	−13	35	Relegation to 3. Liga

Source: DFB
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	AUE	BER	BIE	BOC	BRA	DAR	DRE	DUI	DÜS	FÜR	HEI	ING	KAI	KIE	NÜR	REG	SAN	STP
Erzgebirge Aue	—	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–3	1–0	0–0	1–3	0–2	2–1	1–1	0–0	2–1	0–3	3–1	1–0	1–0	2–1
Union Berlin	0–0	—	1–1	3–1	1–1	3–3	0–1	0–0	3–1	3–1	1–1	1–2	5–0	4–3	0–1	2–2	2–1	1–0
Arminia Bielefeld	2–0	1–1	—	2–0	2–2	2–0	2–3	0–4	0–2	0–0	1–1	1–3	3–2	1–1	1–0	2–1	0–0	5–0
VfL Bochum	2–1	2–1	0–1	—	2–0	2–1	3–2	0–2	0–0	1–1	1–2	2–0	3–2	1–1	0–0	1–1	2–0	0–1
Eintracht Braunschweig	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	—	2–2	1–1	3–2	0–1	3–0	2–0	0–2	1–2	0–0	2–3	2–1	1–1	0–2
Darmstadt 98	1–0	3–1	4–3	1–2	1–1	—	3–3	1–2	1–0	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	1–1	3–4	0–1	1–2	3–0
Dynamo Dresden	4–0	0–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	0–2	—	1–0	1–2	1–1	3–2	2–2	1–2	0–4	1–1	1–0	0–4	1–3
MSV Duisburg	3–0	1–1	2–2	1–1	0–0	1–2	2–0	—	1–2	2–0	3–3	2–1	1–4	1–3	1–6	4–1	0–2	2–0
Fortuna Düsseldorf	2–1	3–2	4–2	1–2	2–2	1–0	1–3	3–1	—	1–1	2–2	3–0	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–0	1–0	2–1
Greuther Fürth	2–1	2–1	1–2	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–0	2–2	3–1	—	1–0	0–1	2–1	0–0	1–3	1–2	2–1	4–0
1. FC Heidenheim	2–1	4–3	2–2	1–0	2–0	2–2	0–2	1–2	3–1	1–1	—	1–2	3–2	3–5	1–0	1–3	2–0	3–1
FC Ingolstadt	1–2	0–1	2–2	0–1	0–2	3–0	4–2	2–2	1–0	3–0	3–0	—	1–3	1–5	1–1	2–4	0–0	0–1
1. FC Kaiserslautern	0–2	4–3	0–2	0–0	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–1	1–3	3–0	1–0	1–1	—	3–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–1
Holstein Kiel	2–2	2–2	2–1	3–0	6–2	0–0	3–0	5–0	2–2	3–1	2–1	0–0	2–1	—	1–3	1–1	2–2	0–1
1. FC Nürnberg	4–1	2–2	1–2	3–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	3–1	2–3	0–2	3–2	1–2	3–0	2–2	—	2–2	1–0	0–1
Jahn Regensburg	1–3	0–2	3–2	0–1	2–1	0–3	0–2	4–0	4–3	3–2	2–0	3–2	3–1	1–2	0–1	—	2–1	3–1
SV Sandhausen	1–1	1–0	3–1	2–3	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–1	1–2	0–0	1–2	1–0	1–0	3–1	0–2	2–0	—	1–1
FC St. Pauli	1–1	0–1	1–0	2–1	0–0	0–1	2–2	2–2	1–2	3–0	1–0	0–4	1–1	3–2	0–0	2–2	1–1	—

Source: DFB
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

The Darmstadt 98 v 1. FC Kaiserslautern match from 24 January 2018 was suspended after 45 minutes (half-time) and a score of 0–0 due to a medical emergency involving 1. FC Kaiserslautern manager Jeff Strasser. The replay took place on 21 February 2018 and finished with a score of 1–2.

Promotion play-offs

All times are UTC+2.

First leg

17 May 2018

20:30

VfL Wolfsburg	3–1	Holstein Kiel
Origi 13' Brekalo 40' Mallı 56'	Report	Schindler 34'

Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg

Attendance: 28,800

Referee: Deniz Aytekin

Second leg

21 May 2018

20:30

Holstein Kiel	0–1	VfL Wolfsburg
	Report	Knoche 75'

Holstein-Stadion, Kiel

Attendance: 12,000

Referee: Daniel Siebert

VfL Wolfsburg won 4–1 on aggregate and therefore both clubs remain in their respective leagues.

Relegation play-offs

All times are UTC+2.

First leg

18 May 2018

18:15

Karlsruher SC	0–0	Erzgebirge Aue
	Report

Wildparkstadion, Karlsruhe

Attendance: 25,906

Referee: Sascha Stegemann

Second leg

22 May 2018

18:15

Erzgebirge Aue	3–1	Karlsruher SC
Bertram 25', 53', 75'	Report	Schleusener 44'

Erzgebirgsstadion, Aue

Attendance: 16,000

Referee: Bastian Dankert

Erzgebirge Aue won 3–1 on aggregate and therefore both clubs remain in their respective leagues.

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Marvin Ducksch	Holstein Kiel	18
2	Hanno Behrens	1. FC Nürnberg	14
	Lukas Hinterseer	VfL Bochum
	Steven Skrzybski	Union Berlin
5	Marco Grüttner	Jahn Regensburg	13
	Rouwen Hennings	Fortuna Düsseldorf
	Andreas Voglsammer	Arminia Bielefeld
8	Sebastian Andersson	1. FC Kaiserslautern	12
	Dominick Drexler	Holstein Kiel
	Mikael Ishak	1. FC Nürnberg
	Sebastian Polter	Union Berlin
	Kingsley Schindler	Holstein Kiel

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Marcel Schuhen	SV Sandhausen	12
2	Stefan Ortega	Arminia Bielefeld	11
3	Robin Himmelmann	FC St. Pauli	10
3	Ørjan Nyland	FC Ingolstadt	10
5	Jasmin Fejzić	Eintracht Braunschweig	9
5	Mark Flekken	MSV Duisburg	9
7	Daniel Heuer Fernandes	Darmstadt 98	8
7	Kenneth Kronholm	Holstein Kiel	8
9	Seven players		7

Number of teams by state

Position	State	Number of teams	Teams
1	Bavaria	4	FC Ingolstadt, Greuther Fürth, 1. FC Nürnberg and Jahn Regensburg
1	North Rhine-Westphalia	4	Arminia Bielefeld, VfL Bochum, Fortuna Düsseldorf and MSV Duisburg
3	Baden-Württemberg	2	1. FC Heidenheim and SV Sandhausen
3	Saxony	2	Dynamo Dresden and Erzgebirge Aue
5	Berlin	1	Union Berlin
	Hamburg	1	FC St. Pauli
	Hesse	1	Darmstadt 98
	Lower Saxony	1	Eintracht Braunschweig
	Rhineland-Palatinate	1	1. FC Kaiserslautern
	Schleswig-Holstein	1	Holstein Kiel

Highs of the season

The highest wins were all with 5 goals difference:
- The 6:1 between 1. FC Nürnberg at MSV Duisburg on the 6th matchday
- The 5:0 between 1. FC Union Berlin against 1. FC Kaiserslautern on the 8th matchday
- The 5:0 of Arminia Bielefeld against FC St. Pauli on the 16th matchday
- The 5:0 of Holstein Kiel against MSV Duisburg on the 25th matchday
The games with the most goals scored was with 8 goals:
- The 3:5 of 1. FC Heidenheim against Holstein Kiel on the 10th matchday
- The 6:2 between Holstein Kiel against Eintracht Braunschweig on the 34th matchday
The highest goal undecided games were:
- The 3:3 between SV Darmstadt 98 against Dynamo Dresden on the 8th matchday
- The 3:3 of 1. FC Union Berlin against the SV Darmstadt 98 on the 15th matchday
- The 3:3 of MSV Duisburg against 1. FC Heidenheim on the 20th marchday
The highest goal scoring match day was 36 goals on the 27th matchday from 16. To 19. March 2018.

[table_note_1_DAR_KAI0.19188840137417-37] The Darmstadt 98 v 1. FC Kaiserslautern match from 24 January 2018 was suspended after 45 minutes (half-time) and a score of 0–0 due to a medical emergency involving 1. FC Kaiserslautern manager Jeff Strasser. The replay took place on 21 February 2018 and finished with a score of 1–2.