There were few tears at the end, just as there were few gazes directed to phone screens during the game to check scores elsewhere. St Pauli scarves were raised to the sky in the stands of Millentor as You’ll Never Walk Alone rolled out of the stadium’s speakers, with the players and staff forming a huddle in the middle of the field to share words of commiseration.

This club apart will live to fight another day, after a day on which they had given everything and on which it just was not enough. It would be simplistic, on a day when Europe’s premier counter-cultural club played a club that have traditionally been seen by Bundesliga fans as the embodiment of corporate football with salvation the prize, to say that Wolfsburg needed this more than St Pauli. This meant plenty to this left-leaning neighbourhood of Hamburg too, where innovative measures like selling supporters shares in the stadium to raise funds have shown how determined they are to prove that there are ways to thrive and survive in the top leagues of the modern game without shedding their traditional values.

Recent form had suggested this might be a mountain too many for St Pauli, as they came into this fixture with no wins in their previous nine. Yet here they had their chance. With the bottom three all on 26 points, all three had the chance of finishing bottom or booking themselves the playoff place in 16th. Heidenheim made up the trio, facing Mainz at home having risen from the ashes in recent weeks, so it was worth glancing south too, as a draw in Hamburg would give Frank Schmidt’s side the chance to finish off a great escape to top them all.

Shape emerged after a cagey opening and perhaps it was the expected one; the home side huffing and puffing, and even coming close to an opener when Joel Fujita smacked a shot from range against the crossbar, and the slicker visitors threatened to crack the game open on the counterattack, with Adam Daghim denied more than once by the goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj. It felt like the moment to grab an opportunity on a day when Heidenheim, another club of limited means that has come so far, were chasing from an early stage in the other game, going a goal down to Phillip Tietz in the seventh minute. By the time they reached the break at 2-0 adrift, the match at Millentor became what we had thought it might be; an eliminator.

Wolfsburg had broken the deadlock too though, with Konstantinos Koulierakis flicking in a header from an inviting Christian Eriksen delivery. Yet with Heidenheim floundering 700km away, it really was all back on when the substitute Abdoulie Ceesay finally took one of the chances that St Pauli so struggle to put away for the leveller.

Enter Eriksen, the veteran who was signed to aim towards Europe rather than battle the drop, who was an addition to a congested midfield roster that felt like it did not need extra numbers, brought in by a compatriot sporting director no longer there in a chaotic season of three head coaches. Another corner, testing an under-pressure Vasilj, was punched into his own net by the goalkeeper. The video assistant referee invited Daniel Siebert to review it; the referee stuck with his decision to award the goal.

There was more, and Eriksen was not even blown off course by his penalty miss, a driven spot kick leaving the crossbar vibrating. Three minutes later he had another shot turned away by Vasilj, but Dzenan Pejčinović snaffled the rebound to seal it. It had been a stellar performance from a player who has become vital in recent weeks, replacing the injured club totem Max Arnold as captain and leading from the front. From luxury to centrepiece. He and Dieter Hecking, the returned coach from Wolfsburg’s glory days a decade ago, had staved off the worst, stars getting their hands dirty.

“It’s almost unbelievable,” wrote Hendrik Buchheister in Wolfsburger Allgemeine. “Hecking’s Wolfsburg side beat Manchester United and Real Madrid (in 2015-16) but the coach’s greatest achievement might be the work he has accomplished since returning to his former club two months ago.” And though it might be a hard sell to those who fill the terraces at Millentor and care little for Wolfsburg’s credo or business model, they had had shown their mettle to get the job done. Now there are two to go, with Hecking reflecting that even to be able to take part in the playoff felt like “a privilege,” Wolfsburg may have carved a chance to rip it all up and start again.

Talking points

Bayern lifted the Meisterschale after a 5-1 final day win over Köln, which included a Harry Kane hat-trick, amid the usual beer showers – with the captain Manuel Neuer insisting the departing Leon Goretzka should be the one to lift the trophy on the podium. Meanwhile Neuer was at the heart of everything, having just signed a new contract to continue next season and with news that, after extensive talks with the DFB and Julian Nagelsmann, he was in Germany’s preliminary 55-man World Cup squad and would likely be the starter, replacing Oliver Baumann. The 40-year-old ducked to comment. “We are celebrating the championship today and have a very important DFB Pokal match [final against Stuttgart] next week.”.

Nobody told Baumann either, with the Hoffenheim goalkeeper saying he thought he was still Germany’s first option when speaking after his team’s 4-0 loss at Borussia Mönchengladbach, which confirmed they would only make the Europa League and not the Champions League. Nagelsmann, appearing later on ZDF’s Aktuelle Sportstudio, did nothing to make the situation any clearer and it’s difficult not to think a coach so big on precise communication could have handled this much better (the situation was further muddied by Bayern’s Sunday announcement that Neuer “will have to take it easy for the time being” after another calf injury).

Stuttgart were grateful for Hoffenheim’s perplexing display; their concession of two late Jonathan Burkhardt penalties at Eintracht Frankfurt, having led 2-0 at the interval, meant that a Hoffenheim win would have taken fourth place from them but they qualified for next season’s Champions League safe and sound, and deservedly so. Leverkusen could only draw 1-1 at home to Hamburg, having gone in knowing only a win coupled with losses for Stuttgart and Hoffenheim would see them back into fourth. They missed chances aplenty, with the debutant goalkeeper Sander Tangvik saving a Patrik Schick penalty, the image of the second half of their season (they were only eighth in terms of Rückrunde results). Their eventual sixth place is likely to swiftly precipitate the end of Kasper Hjulmand’s tenure.

Freiburg didn’t wait for assists from Stuttgart to make sure of securing seventh place; they beat RB Leipzig 4-1 before travelling to face Aston Villa in the Europa League, securing at least Conference League football come what may in Istanbul. Frankfurt, finishing eighth thanks to Augsburg’s 4-0 shellacking at Union Berlin in Marie-Louise Eta’s last game in charge, are likely looking at a major reset with a vocal proportion of their fans making their feelings towards the coach Albert Riera clear, booing his name when the teams were read out and unfurling a “Nada de gracias, Albert” banner. He was fired on Sunday.