In the second leg of the relegation, the 1st FC Heidenheim has secured the SV Elversberg and thus secured Bundesliga membership – in literally last minute. Elversberg was actually the better team.
Mathias Honsak put the guests in the lead on Monday evening (May 26, 2025), Robin Fellhauer scored to equalize (31st). In the 5th minute of stoppage time, Léo Scienza finally scored the winning goal for Heidenheim.
Horst Steffen: “It really hurts”
Elversberg coach Horst Steffen then admitted to Sky: “Broofing such a performance and then leaving as a loser hurts really. We actually no longer allowed an attack in the second half, then in the end the quality of Scienza decides. We are disappointed, there is no longer anything.”
His colleague Frank Schmidt was also honest: “We drop out of huge chunks. Of course I tried to spread some looseness beforehand, but the tension was enormous. Giant compliment to Léo Scienza and giant compliment to the whole team, Léos Tor has kept us in the Bundesliga. Now I need a break to invite the battery again. I am then away – no one can reach me from tomorrow.”
Strong start of the FCH
The Heidenheimers did not make the mistake from the first leg (2: 2) to start the game totally passively into the game. Already in the 5th minute Marvin Pieringer had the first dangerous end, Elversberg’s keeper Nicolas Kristof clapped the ball as with the goals conceded last Thursday – but this time no FCH player could recycle the dust.
However, the guests stayed on the pusher and benefited from a beginner’s error of the hosts. When Scienza drove the ball through the offensive midfield, three Elversberger went towards him and thus completely opened the room for the starting Honsak – who kept his nerve in front of Kristof.
Sahin and Pieringer replaced injured
In this phase, Elversberg obviously did not cope with the pressure to have the Bundesliga in mind when 12,800 inhabitants. Horst Steffen’s team seemed inhibited, cramped and blocked. In addition, Semih Sahin, who was injured in injuries, came early, which then broke out in tears on the bench and had to be comforted by his colleagues. Heidenheim also had personnel problems shortly afterwards, and Pieringer also had to get off the pitch with an ankle injury.
Then the FCH made the mistake to withdraw and switch to administrative mode. Elversberg suddenly had a lot more space in midfield, increasingly freely freed himself from pressure and combined more smoothly. Similar to the first goal of the evening, the guest suddenly opened the center after half an hour, Lukas Petkov staged Fellhauer, who gave Kevin Müller no chance.
Traoré sees yellow and is lucky
The momentum was now on the side of the Elversberger, and shortly before the break, Heidenheim almost increased his own problems. Omar Traoré initially saw after a male climbing against Tom Zimmerschied Gelb (43.) and shortly afterwards slammed the elbow in the face in a duel. The Elversberger was bleeding heavily, but referee Sascha Stegemann regarded the campaign as unintentional and left Traoré on the field.
Heidenheim’s coach Schmidt then went to risk, and the break did not change during the break. 76 seconds after the restart, however, he first experienced another frightening second.
Asllani cheers – then the VAR intervenes
Fisnik Asllani already cheered the supposed 2: 1 before Stegemann decided to take the goal again after a four -minute interruption and video study: When Elias Baum was crossed, Fellhauer had minimally stood out on the five -meter space and with his attempt to forward the ball, the Heidenheim defense – the return of the hit was correct.
But Elversberg stayed on the accelerator pedal, Heidenheim pushed deep into his own half, but had problems playing further chances. In this phase, FCH coach Schmidt remained astonishingly inappropriate, who needed up to the 78th minute to bring new accents off the bank with Paul Wanner and Niklas Dorsch.
Heidenheim plays early on extension
At Heidenheim, the play area had an aim to reach the extension throughout the second half and then possibly benefit from the significantly wider squad at the start of the season for Europe. Elversberg definitely searched the decision in the regular season, but simply found no more gaps.
When everything looked like an extension, a counterattack brought the decision. In the fifth minute of stoppage time, Scienza, after the Dream Pass from Wanner ice -cold, concluded the winning goal – the courageous approach from Elversberg was punished.