Coach Frank Schmidt from Bundesliga club 1. FC Heidenheim praised his colleague Horst Steffen from relegation opponent SV Elversberg in the highest tones.
“For me he is the coach of the year. When I see what he did with Elversberg, how he managed to put together a team with his team that plays such a successful football. Great respect,” said the 51-year-old before the first leg in Heidenheim on Thursday (8:30 p.m./Sat.1 and Sky).
At the same time, the achievements of the table third of the 2nd league are also an incentive for his team. “That’s why I’m looking forward to this duel because we can show that we can prevail against it,” said Schmidt, who primarily wants to understand the relegation as an opportunity.
“For us it is not about preventing something, but getting something. They are promotion games, even if we are the Bundesliga club,” he said.
It was “completely uninteresting for him since the relegation of the relegation in 13 out of 16 cases of the Bundesliga club,” emphasized Schmidt: “It is a new situation, they are play-off games. These are the special moments when you can achieve a lot.”