Considering that the Saarland town of Spiesen-Elversberg doesn’t even boast a train station to serve its approximately 12,000 population, it would be something extraordinary to see it represented in the Bundesliga.
Horst Steffen’s work to mastermind two promotions in the previous three seasons was nothing short of remarkable, but their chances of another were significantly dented inside 10 minutes when Scienza skipped away from the Elversberg challenges and added to his two assists from the first leg by playing through Mathias Honsak, who beat Nicolas Kristof one-on-one.
But in opposite fashion to the first leg, in which they gave up a two-goal advantage to draw 2-2, Elversberg were the ones to respond and did so with 15 minutes to spare before half-time. Tom Zimmerschied spotted the run of Robin Fellhauer and found him with a defence-splitting pass, before the captain slotted under Kevin Muller.
The remainder of the half was played with plenty of tenacity and passion, and both the scoreline and the run of play remained even going into the break.
The hosts started the second half well though, and were unfortunate that Muhammed Damar was fractionally offside in the build-up to fellow Hoffenheim loanee Fisnik Asllani’s tap-in.
They remained firmly in control but the chances quickly dried up, and they were left to keep possession and ring in extra-time. However, Heidenheim had other ideas.
They countered with pace deep into stoppage time through Scienza, who turned Florian Le Joncour inside out before devastatingly firing inside the near post to keep his side at the top table.
Heidenheim’s victory sees the 2024/25 UEFA Conference League participants remain in the Bundesliga and save Frank Schmidt from tasting a first relegation in his record-breaking 19-year spell in charge of the club.
It also means that Union Berlin remain the only second-tier side to have won this playoff in the last 13 editions and that Unterhaching will remain the smallest community by population to host a German top-flight match.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Leo Scienza (Heidenheim)
Click here for more on the match.
