manager Falko Götz on 11 April. Hertha started the 2007–08 season with new manager Lucien Favre, who had won the Swiss championship in 2006 and 2007 with Zürich. Hertha finished tenth again, but started in the first qualification round of the UEFA Cup via the UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking, making it as far as the group stage of the tournament. After a successful campaign in 2008–09 season, finishing in fourth place and remaining in the title race up until the second to last matchday, the club had a very poor season in 2009–10 season, finishing last in the Bundesliga and suffering relegation. After spending the 2010–11 season in the 2. Bundesliga, Hertha secured its return to the Bundesliga for 2011–12 by winning 1–0 at MSV Duisburg with three matchdays to play in the season. Hertha, however, finished 16th in the 2011–12 Bundesliga and lost in the relegation playoff to Fortuna Düsseldorf to fall back to the 2. Bundesliga. In 2012–13, Hertha achieved promotion from the second division as champions for the second time in three seasons. On the opening day of the 2013–14 season, the club beat Eintracht Frankfurt 6–1 at the Olympiastadion to top the Bundesliga table at the end of matchday 1. On 5 February 2015 Pál Dárdai, Hertha's longest serving and most capped player ever with 366 appearances took over as the manager of the main squad. At the halfway point of the 2015–16 Bundesliga season, Hertha lay in third place, its highest position at the winter break since 2008–09. Despite a late-season slump, Hertha still finished in seventh place for the season, its highest finish in the Bundesliga since 2008–09 during which Hertha finished fourth. The seventh-place finish meant the club secured Europa League football for the 2016–17 season by the means of a third round play-off. Hertha lost the third round play-off 3–2 on aggregate to Brøndby, winning the first leg 1–0 in Berlin but losing the second away tie 3–1, with Teemu Pukki scoring a hat-trick for the Danish side. In the 2016–17 Bundesliga season, Hertha enjoyed its best ever start to a Bundesliga season in terms of points won during the opening eight matches, losing just one match – away against Bayern Munich – and forcing a draw away against Borussia Dortmund. At the 2016–17 Bundesliga winter break, Hertha stood at third place in the league, with nine wins, three draws and