Soccer / Football : Germany : Bundesliga 2012/2013

Sami Hyypia is to take sole charge of Bayer Leverkusen next season with his former co-trainer Sascha Lewandowski set to become head of youth team coaching. Hyypia, 39, made more than 300 Premier League appearances for Liverpool between 1999 and 2009. He retired as a player while at Leverkusen in 2011. Lewandowski and Hyypia, coach and team manager respectively, led the club to a third-place finish this season, ensuring entry to next term's UEFA Champions League group stage.

Werder have parted company with Thomas Schaaf, the longest-serving coach in the Bundesliga who spent 14 years with the Bremen side. The 52-year-old helped Werder capture a league and cup double in 2004 as well as three Cup trophies during his time at the club. However, Werder have narrowly avoided relegation this term, and the parties decided on his exit by mutual consent. Assistant coaches Wolfgang Rolff and Matthias Hoenerbach will replace Schaaf for the final game of the season against Nurnberg on Saturday.

The race for the final UEFA Champions League qualifying place from the Bundesliga will go down to the wire after fourth-placed Schalke suffered a 2-1 loss to Stuttgart. After defeating rock-bottom Greuther Furth 2-1, fifth-placed Freiburg go into their final game, at home against direct rivals Schalke, with real hope of booking a place in the Champions League. Eintracht Frankfurt are a point behind Freiburg after they were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw away to Werder Bremen, who secured their place in the top flight next season.

New Zealand forward Marco Rojas has signed a four-year deal with Stuttgart. The 21-year-old arrives on a free transfer from Australia's Melbourne Victory, where he scored 15 goals and provided nine assists in his second season with the club. Rojas has just been voted player of the year in Australia.

Stuttgart have signed Konstantin Rausch on a free transfer from Hannover. The 23-year-old midfielder has agreed a three-year contract effective July 1. Rausch joined the Hannover youth academy as a 14-year-old and has gone on to make 148 appearances in the Bundesliga. Stuttgart had already signed Sercan Sararer and goalkeeper Thorsten Kirschbaum on free transfers from Greuther Fuerth and Energie Cottbus, respectively.

Borussia Dortmund ended ten-man Bayern Munich's 14-match winning streak in the Bundesliga as the warm-up for the UEFA Champions League final ended in a 1-1 draw. For the first time since December, Bayern dropped league points, but both sides fielded just a handful of first-choice players set to start the Wembley final on May 25. Third-placed Bayer Leverkusen sealed automatic qualification for next season's UEFA Champions League with a 2-0 win at Nurnberg. Schalke picked up three big points towards securing a place in the top four and a UEFA Champions League qualifying berth with a 1-0 win at Borussia Monchengladbach.

Bayern Munich was travelling without four key players for Saturday's clash with Borussia Dortmund. Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery were out with knocks sustained in Wednesday's Champions League semifinal win over Barcelona. Bayern was 20 points ahead of Dortmund and coach Jupp Heynckes said he expected Dortmund to field a weakened side, too.

Borussia Dortmund are hopeful that Mario Gotze will be match fit in time for the UEFA Champions League final against Bayern Munich at Wembley Stadium on May 25. The Dortmund star, 20, had to be substituted only 12 minutes into his team's 2-0 loss at Real Madrid on Tuesday due to a thigh problem. In the worst-case scenario, the injury would keep him out of action for five weeks. Gotze, who leaves Dortmund for Bayern in the summer, will miss this weekend's match with his future club.