Tension in the Bundesliga table cellar
The miracle is possible: Heidenheim celebrates in Cologne
Updated May 10, 2026 – 7:32 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Heidenheim continues to nurture hopes of sensationally staying in the league. A dramatic finale is looming for the last match day.
1. FC Heidenheim won 3-1 (2-1) at 1. FC Cologne on Sunday evening in the 33rd Bundesliga matchday. The Heidenheimers, who were written off weeks ago, have drawn level on points with FC St. Pauli and VfL Wolfsburg (all 26) and even climbed to 17th place. Next Saturday (3:30 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online) FCH could jump into the relegation spot with a win over Mainz. The two competitors meet each other in parallel.
In Cologne, Jan Schöppner scored a brace (8th minute, 73rd) and Arijon Ibrahimović were responsible for Heidenheim’s goals. Marius Bülter managed to equalize (10th).
Without Simpson-Pusey, there was a lack of order in the Cologne backline, especially in the early stages. Cenk Özkacar made two serious and serious mistakes before Heidenheim took the lead. However, after midfielder Schöppner’s header, FC equalized immediately. With Bülter’s powerful shot from a tight angle, Frank Feller was powerless in the Heidenheim goal. FCH coach Schmidt had surprisingly promoted the 22-year-old to the new number one before the game and put Diant Ramaj, who was weak in the 3-3 draw at FC Bayern, on the bench.
“There is no one reason,” said Schmidt about his goalkeeper change. Feller had seriously injured his knee before the season, was out for months and, according to Schmidt, recently brought himself back to an “absolute top level” in training. Schmidt made it clear that Feller would remain in goal even in the event of the relegation games.
That became more likely again in the first half thanks to Ibrahimovic’s renewed lead. Cologne’s defense also looked bad when the guests scored 2-1. Heidenheim remained in control of the game against carefree FC, but sometimes acted too awkwardly and missed the possible third goal in several situations before the break. The result was whistles from the Cologne fans at half-time.
