1. FC Heidenheim’s winless streak continues in the Conference League. The FCH “has to” get into the play-offs, but there isn’t much time for quarreling. Frank Schmidt is without vice-captain Lennard Maloney for the time being.
After the 1:1 (1:0) against FC St. Gallen 1. FC Heidenheim finished the group phase of the Conference League in 16th place. With a win, FCH would have finished in eighth place and directly reached the round of 16. There are now two extra games in the play-offs at the beginning of February. There the Bundesliga team will meet FC Copenhagen, as the draw showed on Friday. The first leg will take place on February 13th, the second leg in Heidenheim will take place a week later.
There are two games that FCH would have liked to have saved. If they had made it to the round of 16, the Bundesliga club would not have intervened in the European Cup until March and could have concentrated on the fight against relegation until then.
“Very annoying, our goal was to win the game today. That was more than possible,” said coach Frank Schmidt in an interview with SWR. “But it’s no use. Now we don’t need to be upset anymore, it’s over now.”
St. Gallen punished Heidenheim
In fact, FCH had more than enough opportunities to decide the game against the Swiss after Norman Theuerkauf’s opening goal (30th minute). But the Bundesliga club lacked the ultimate determination on Thursday. St. Gallen punished this in the 77th minute with Jozo Stanic’s goal.
“That makes you angry and upset. We didn’t manage to end this winless streak,” said captain Patrick Mainka. The last time FCH left the field as winners was on November 7th, in the European Cup game at Heart of Midlothian. This was followed by seven defeats across all competitions with a total of 24 goals conceded.
At least: The negative series was stopped against St. Gallen. And as in Game against VfB Stuttgart (1:3) The Heidenheimers put in a decent performance against the Swiss. But in the end the result wasn’t right.
FCH before the basement duel in Bochum
In the Bundesliga, the last win was even longer ago. On September 28th, the FCH won 2-0 at Mainz 05 after a rip-off performance and then saluted from sixth place.
Since then, things have gone downhill for the Schmidt team. On Sunday (December 22nd, 2024) the Heidenheimers face a decisive encounter. Then at 3:30 p.m. there is the basement duel against bottom team VfL Bochum (live ticker and audio stream on sportschau.de). It’s high time for the FCH to end the winless streak so that they can go into the winter break with a good feeling and stay in touch with the competition.
The performance against St. Gallen at least gives coach Schmidt courage that it can be successful. “We were in control, and maybe we can take that with us. We had the composure on the ball for a long time to play against an opponent like that,” said the 50-year-old. “But in the end you have to see this thing through.”
Maloney not taken into account
Lennard Maloney is not there in Bochum. The defensive midfielder suffered a head injury in the Conference League game at Basaksehir Istanbul and was out against VfB.
The American would have been an option again for the game against St. Gallen – actually. “He’s fit, he’s been training again. But I decided not to nominate him for yesterday and Sunday because he’s currently not in a condition to focus fully on the sporting task. I have that for him also communicated in a personal conversation,” said Schmidt.
The background could be the midfielder’s possible thoughts of leaving. “In the overall context, the situation as to what happens next in the winter plays a big role,” says Schmidt. Maloney’s contract expires at the end of the season. But the FCH in Bochum only needs players who have “full focus on the sporting situation,” said Schmidt.
Broadcast on Friday, December 20, 2024, 6:00 a.m., SWR Aktuell in the morning, SWR Aktuell
