The Bundesliga’s relegation battle could culminate in a Furioso final with three teams tied on points. 1. FC Heidenheim senses morning air.
When Frank Schmidt looks into the bottom of the Bundesliga table, there is a glimmer of hope. “The important thing is that the light is not off. How it burns and how dimmed it is doesn’t matter,” said the coach of bottom club 1. FC Heidenheim on Thursday (May 7th): “The light is on. We still see a chance of staying in class.”
There is still something going on for the outsider, who was considered a certain relegation for so long. Only one of the last six games was lost, most recently The FCH scratched the sensation against the German champions Bayern Munich (3:3).. On Sunday, when Heidenheim plays its last away game of the season at 1. FC Köln (5.30 p.m. live in the audio stream on Sportschau.de), a win could give the league an epic relegation final on the last matchday.
Heidenheim doesn’t count
“We don’t calculate and we don’t calculate anything nicely. We have a mission. We have to win a game, that’s the only thing we can influence,” said Schmidt. But football is a daily business: “If at the end of the day the story is that we manage to win this game and have a constellation on the last match day where anything is possible – we would really be up for it.”
If bottom team Heidenheim wins in the cathedral city, they will go into the final matchday level on points with FC St. Pauli (in 17th place after Saturday’s games) and VfL Wolfsburg in the longed-for relegation position of 16th. All three teams would then have 26 points.
Heidenheim is also playing into the cards that St. Pauli and Wolfsburg will, strangely enough, take points from each other on matchday 34, while the Schmidt team has to play at the same time in their own stadium against the already saved 1. FSV Mainz 05.
“We are going into the last two matchdays and there are still different constellations as far as the table is concerned,” said Schmidt on Thursday: “This is the special circumstance for which we are very grateful and for which it is still worth fighting with everything we have.” The competition has been warned.
Heidenheimer cannot be relegated this weekend
As coach of VfL Wolfsburg, Dieter Hecking also knows about Heidenheim’s new strength. “It will be a three-way battle. Heidenheim is currently showing that they have not given up yet,” he predicted before the 33rd matchday and his Wolves’ home defeat against FC Bayern (0-1).
One thing is clear: regardless of the outcome of the game in Cologne, 1. FC Heidenheim cannot be relegated this Sunday. There will therefore be a showdown on the 34th and final matchday of the 2025/2026 season.
