Heidenheim beats Elversberg with last minute goal and remains first class

The 1. FC Heidenheim has the dream of the village club SV Elversberg from the first promotion to the Bundesliga Break up and secure the relegation on the last handle. The Ostalb team won the relegation secondary with the Saarlanders 2-1 (1: 1) through a goal in added time and goes to elite class after the 2-2 in the first leg.

In front of 10,000 spectators, Mathias Honsak scored the goals for the team of coach Frank Schmidt in the 9th minute and Leonardo Scienza (90.+5), who the game year as table-16. had completed VfL Bochum and Holstein Kiel in front of the relegations. Robin Fellhauer’s (31st) compensation in the meantime, who had qualified as the third in the 2nd league for the relegation, was not enough for the Bundesliga promotion. The 1st FC Köln and Hamburger SV had secured it directly.

With the victory, the Heidenheimers, who even played internationally in the Conference League this season, stopped the fairytale journey of the SVE. Four years ago, the Saarlanders were still kicking in the regional league. Then the ascent – 2022 in the 3rd division, in 2023 in the 2nd Bundesliga. The team of coach Horst Steffen was not enough for the very big coup.

Bundesliga relegation: strong start of Heidenheim

Unlike last Thursday, Heidenheim did not surprise himself from the outsider at the beginning. The guests, who were 0: 2 in the first duel for the break, were wide awake from the kick -off and after five minutes by Marvin Pieringer. However, the striker failed due to SVE goalkeeper Nicolas Kristof.

The home side didn’t seem to have heard this warning shot, because only a little later Honsak appeared in front of the goal after a fine pass from Leonardo Scienza and completed an early tour of the guests.

The next setback for Elversberg followed after a good quarter of an hour when midfielder Semih Sahin had to get off the pitch. Carlo Sickinger came for him. But Heidenheim also had to cope with an early failure. For Pieringer, it was also over after 23 minutes. Guest coach Frank Schmidt brought Budu Siwsiwadse for him.

Class response from Elversberg

In the middle of the first half, the home side increasingly took over the game control and rewarded themselves for their efforts with the equalization. With a simple pass, Tom Zimmerschied leveraged the entire Heidenheim defense. Fellhauer kept his nerves in front of guest goalkeeper Kevin Müller and easily pushed in.

Shortly after the break, the Elversberger cheered again – but only briefly. Because at the goal of striker Fisnik Asllani, Muhammed Damar was previously offside. It was also checked whether the Elversberg player had intervened, but referee Sascha Stegemann could not see a passive role.

That played now lived from the tension. Elversberg had countered the game control, Heidenheim countered – and not even harmless. Luca Kerber moved from a short distance (67th). So it took up to the fifth minute in added time when Scienza achieved the winning goal with a great individual performance. (By Eric Dobias and Stefanie Sandmeier, dpa)