2020–21 2. Bundesliga

2. Bundesliga 2020–21
Season information
Dates	18 September 2020 – 23 May 2021
Winners	Bochum
Promoted	Bochum Greuther Fürth
Relegated	VfL Osnabrück Eintracht Braunschweig Würzburger Kickers
Season statistics
Matches played	306
Goals scored	908
Top goalscorer	Serdar Dursun (27 goals)
Biggest home win	Bochum 5–0 Düsseldorf Hamburg 5–0 Osnabrück
Biggest away win	Aue 3–8 Paderborn
Highest scoring	Aue 3–8 Paderborn
← 2019–20	2021–22 →

The 2020–21 2. Bundesliga was the 47th season of the 2. Bundesliga. It began on 18 September 2020 and concluded on 23 May 2021. The season was originally scheduled to begin on 31 July 2020 and conclude on 16 May 2021, though this was delayed due to postponement of the previous season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The relegation games were scheduled to be held between 26 and 30 May 2021. From 22 December 2020 to 1 January 2021, the season was interrupted by a shortened winter break. A total of 306 league and four relegation games were to be played, including three English weeks.

The fixtures were announced on 7 August 2020.

Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

The season was originally scheduled to open on 31 July 2020 and end on 16 May 2021. As the pre-season operation was suspended for several weeks between 11 March and 16 May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the international club competitions of the same season did not end until August 2020, a postponement of the start of the season became necessary. The DFB and the DFL, in consultation with FIFA, also adapted the summer transfer period (in principle 1 July to 31 August). The transfer window was open on 1 July (change period I.1) and from 15 July to 5 October 2020 (change period I.2). The first one-day phase was planned, in particular for the registration of contracts already concluded, starting on 1 July.

On 3 September 2020, the DFL General Assembly voted to extend the use of five substitutions in matches to the 2020–21 season, which was implemented at the end of the previous season to lessen the impact of fixture congestion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of five substitutes, based on the decision of competition organisers, had been extended by IFAB until 2021.

On 15 September 2020, three days before the opening of the new season, the premiers and representatives of the league agreed on a concept that would allow a spectator count of 20 percent of the stadium capacity by the end of October. In the end, 13 of 54 matches had to be played in the first six days of the season, but on average only 1,900 spectators were allowed into the stadiums until then. Following a decision by the Prime Ministers on 29 October, a general exclusion of spectators was finally ordered at least for match days 7 to 9. The background was the shutdown, which was initially only valid for November nationwide, but did not include the general operation of the two Bundesligen.

Teams

Team changes

Promoted from 2019–20 3. Liga	Relegated from 2019–20 Bundesliga	Promoted to 2020–21 Bundesliga	Relegated to 2020–21 3. Liga
Würzburger Kickers Eintracht Braunschweig	Fortuna Düsseldorf SC Paderborn	Arminia Bielefeld VfB Stuttgart	Wehen Wiesbaden Dynamo Dresden

Stadiums and locations

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Erzgebirge Aue	Aue-Bad Schlema	Sparkassen-Erzgebirgsstadion	15,711
VfL Bochum	Bochum	Vonovia Ruhrstadion	29,299
Eintracht Braunschweig	Braunschweig	Eintracht-Stadion	23,325
Darmstadt 98	Darmstadt	Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor	17,000
Fortuna Düsseldorf	Düsseldorf	Merkur Spiel-Arena	54,600
Greuther Fürth	Fürth	Sportpark Ronhof Thomas Sommer	18,500
Hamburger SV	Hamburg	Volksparkstadion	57,000
Hannover 96	Hanover	HDI-Arena	49,000
1. FC Heidenheim	Heidenheim	Voith-Arena	15,000
Karlsruher SC	Karlsruhe	Wildparkstadion	29,699
Holstein Kiel	Kiel	Holstein-Stadion	15,034
1. FC Nürnberg	Nuremberg	Max-Morlock-Stadion	49,923
VfL Osnabrück	Osnabrück	Stadion an der Bremer Brücke	16,667
SC Paderborn	Paderborn	Benteler-Arena	15,000
Jahn Regensburg	Regensburg	Jahnstadion Regensburg	15,210
SV Sandhausen	Sandhausen	BWT-Stadion am Hardtwald	15,414
FC St. Pauli	Hamburg	Millerntor-Stadion	29,546
Würzburger Kickers	Würzburg	Flyeralarm Arena	14,500

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
				Front	Sleeve
Erzgebirge Aue	Dirk Schuster	Martin Männel	Nike	WätaS Wärmetauscher Sachsen	Leonhardt Group
VfL Bochum	Thomas Reis	Anthony Losilla	Nike	Tricorp Workwear	Viactiv Betriebskrankenkasse
Eintracht Braunschweig	Daniel Meyer	Martin Kobylański	Erima	Heycar
Darmstadt 98	Markus Anfang	Fabian Holland	Craft	Software AG	Dialog Minds
Fortuna Düsseldorf	Uwe Rösler	Adam Bodzek	Uhlsport	Henkel	Toyo Tires
Greuther Fürth	Stefan Leitl	Branimir Hrgota	Puma	Hofmann Personal	BVUK
Hamburger SV	Daniel Thioune	Tim Leibold	Adidas	Orthomol	Popp Feinkost
Hannover 96	Kenan Kocak	Dominik Kaiser	Macron	Heinz von Heiden	HDI
1. FC Heidenheim	Frank Schmidt	Marc Schnatterer	Nike	Kneipp	Voith
Karlsruher SC	Christian Eichner	Jérôme Gondorf	Macron	Klaiber Markisen	CG Gruppe
Holstein Kiel	Ole Werner	Hauke Wahl	Puma	Famila	Lotto Schleswig-Holstein
1. FC Nürnberg	Robert Klauß	Enrico Valentini	Umbro	Nürnberger Versicherung	Godelmann Betonstein
VfL Osnabrück	Marco Grote	Maurice Trapp	Puma	sunmaker	Sievert
SC Paderborn	Steffen Baumgart	Sebastian Schonlau	Saller	sunmaker	Effect Energy Drink
Jahn Regensburg	Mersad Selimbegović	Benedikt Gimber	Saller	Netto	Dallmeier electronic
SV Sandhausen	Michael Schiele	Dennis Diekmeier	Puma	gymper	BWT
FC St. Pauli	Timo Schultz	Christopher Avevor	Under Armour	Congstar	Astra Brauerei
Würzburger Kickers	Bernhard Trares	Daniel Hägele	Jako	BVUK

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing	Manner	Exit date		Position in table	Incoming	Incoming date
			Announced on	Departed on			Announced on	Arrived on
Darmstadt 98	Dimitrios Grammozis	End of contract	26 February 2020	30 June 2020	Pre-season	Markus Anfang	16 April 2020	1 July 2020
FC St. Pauli	Jos Luhukay	Mutual consent	29 June 2020			Timo Schultz	12 July 2020
Hamburger SV	Dieter Hecking	End of contract	4 July 2020			Daniel Thioune	6 July 2020
VfL Osnabrück	Daniel Thioune	Signed for Hamburger SV	6 July 2020			Marco Grote	22 July 2020
Eintracht Braunschweig	Marco Antwerpen	End of contract	7 July 2020			Daniel Meyer	10 July 2020
1. FC Nürnberg	Michael Wiesinger	End of contract	11 July 2020			Robert Klauß	30 July 2020
Würzburger Kickers	Michael Schiele	Sacked	29 September 2020		18th	Marco Antwerpen	29 September 2020
	Marco Antwerpen		9 November 2020			Bernhard Trares	9 November 2020
SV Sandhausen	Uwe Koschinat	Sacked	24 November 2020		15th	Michael Schiele	26 November 2020
VfL Osnabrück	Marco Grote		15 February 2021			Florian Fulland (interim)	15 February 2021
SV Sandhausen	Michael Schiele				16th	Stefan Kulovits / Gerhard Kleppinger (interim)
VfL Osnabrück	Florian Fulland (interim)	End of caretaker spell	3 March 2021		15th	Markus Feldhoff	3 March 2021
Würzburger Kickers	Bernhard Trares	Sacked	2 April 2021		18th	Ralf Santelli / Sebastian Schuppan (interim)	2 April 2021
Hamburger SV	Daniel Thioune		3 May 2021		3rd	Horst Hrubesch (interim)	3 May 2021

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	VfL Bochum  (C) (P)	34	21	4	9	66	39	+27	67	Promotion to Bundesliga
2	SpVgg Greuther Fürth  (P)	34	18	10	6	69	44	+25	64
3	Holstein Kiel	34	18	8	8	57	35	+22	62	Qualification to promotion play-offs
4	Hamburger SV	34	16	10	8	71	44	+27	58
5	Fortuna Düsseldorf	34	16	8	10	55	46	+9	56
6	Karlsruher	34	14	10	10	51	44	+7	52
7	Darmstadt 98	34	15	6	13	63	55	+8	51
8	1. FC Heidenheim	34	15	6	13	49	49	0	51
9	SC Paderborn	34	12	11	11	53	45	+8	47
10	FC St. Pauli	34	13	8	13	51	56	−5	47
11	1. FC Nürnberg	34	11	11	12	46	51	−5	44
12	Erzgebirge Aue	34	12	8	14	44	53	−9	44
13	Hannover 96	34	12	6	16	53	51	+2	42
14	Jahn Regensburg	34	9	11	14	37	50	−13	38
15	SV Sandhausen	34	10	4	20	41	60	−19	34
16	VfL Osnabrück  (R)	34	9	6	19	35	58	−23	33	Qualification to the relegation play-offs
17	Eintracht Braunschweig  (R)	34	7	10	17	30	59	−29	31	Relegation to 3. Liga
18	Würzburger Kickers  (R)	34	6	7	21	37	69	−32	25

Source: [ Kicker.de]
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Relegation play-offs

The relegation play-offs took place on 27 and 30 May 2021.

All times are CEST (UTC+2).

Overview

Team #1	Agg.	Team #2	1st leg	2nd leg
FC Ingolstadt	4–3	VfL Osnabrück	3–0	1–3

Matches

27 May 2021 (2021-05-27) 18:15	FC Ingolstadt	3–0	VfL Osnabrück	Audi Sportpark, Ingolstadt Attendance: 250 Referee: Sascha Stegemann
	Schröck  2' Kaya  35' Eckert  81'	Report

30 May 2021 (2021-05-30) 13:30	VfL Osnabrück	3–1	FC Ingolstadt	Stadion an der Bremer Brücke, Osnabrück Attendance: 2,000 Referee: Tobias Stieler
	Heider  6', 20' Amenyido  81'	Report	Bilbija  31'

FC Ingolstadt won 4–3 on aggregate and are promoted to the 2. Bundesliga, while VfL Osnabrück are relegated to the 3. Liga.

Statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Serdar Dursun	Darmstadt 98	27
2	Simon Terodde	Hamburger SV	24
3	Marvin Ducksch	Hannover 96	16
	Branimir Hrgota	Greuther Fürth
	Dennis Srbeny	SC Paderborn
6	Simon Zoller	VfL Bochum	15
	Robert Žulj	VfL Bochum
8	Andreas Albers	Jahn Regensburg	13
	Kevin Behrens	SV Sandhausen
	Chris Führich	SC Paderborn
	Philipp Hofmann	Karlsruher SC
	Christian Kühlwetter	1. FC Heidenheim
	Janni Serra	Holstein Kiel

Assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	David Raum	Greuther Fürth	13
	Robert Žulj	VfL Bochum
3	Pascal Testroet	Erzgebirge Aue	10
4	Sebastian Kerk	VfL Osnabrück	9
	Marco Meyerhöfer	Greuther Fürth
	Manuel Wintzheimer	Hamburger SV
7	Paul Seguin	Greuther Fürth	8
8	Marvin Ducksch	Hannover 96	7
	Johannes Geis	1. FC Nürnberg
	Tobias Kempe	Darmstadt 98
	Daniel-Kofi Kyereh	FC St. Pauli

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean cheets
1	Florian Kastenmeier	Fortuna Düsseldorf	11
	Alexander Meyer	Jahn Regensburg
3	Kevin Müller	1. FC Heidenheim	10
	Manuel Riemann	VfL Bochum
	Leopold Zingerle	SC Paderborn
6	Jasmin Fejzić	Eintracht Braunschweig	9
	Ioannis Gelios	Holstein Kiel
	Marius Gersbeck	Karlsruher SC
	Sven Ulreich	Hamburger SV
10	Michael Esser	Hannover 96	8

2020–21 Team kits

External links

• Official website