Der Dino Go Extinct as Hamburg Relegated From Bundesliga for First Time in League's 55-Year History

Hamburg have become the second team to be relegated from the Bundesliga, ending a record run of 55 straight seasons in the German top flight. 

The northern club are the only side to have played in every single season of the Bundesliga since its inception in 1963 - with even Bayern Munich spending the first two seasons in the Regionalliga Süd; a regional second division, with winners from around the country going into a promotion playoff round. 

Hamburg have battled bravely against the drop in recent seasons - finishing 16th in both the 2013/14 and 2014/15 seasons only to survive by winning relegation play-offs against Greuther Fürth and Karlsruhe respectively - but a chronic lack of goalscoring talent saw them finally perish on Saturday afternoon despite a 2-1 win at home to Borussia Monchengladbach. 

That result may carry an asterisk though, with fan protests and flares causing the game to be stopped deep in injury time. 

The result - assuming it is to stand - would have been enough to ensure one more shot at survival in a relegation playoff were it not for Wolfsburg's 3-1 thrashing of relegated Köln at the same time, goals from Josuha Guilavogui, Divock Origi, Robin Knoche and Josip Brekalo ensuring that the Saxony-based side will face Holstein Kiel in a two-legged battle for a single top-flight berth after fellow strugglers Freiburg also won. 

Hamburg have won the Bundesliga three times since its invention as such in '63, coming in five seasons between 1978/79 and 1982/83 - the first spearheaded by the goals of Kevin Keegan before Horst Hrubesch took over as the club's top scorer for four successive seasons, the man they called Das Kopfball-Ungeheuer (erm; 'the Header Beast') leading Der Dino to a league and European Cup double in 1983.