Heidenheim look ahead to relegation playoffs after defeat: “Shake it off and carry on.” | OneFootball

Heidenheim are still not assured of Bundesliga football next year. Frank Schmidt’s Ostalbenstäbler must contest the 2024/25 promotion-relegation playoff; a two legged affair which begins in five days time. Given the fact that no 2. Bundesliga team has been able to best a German top flight side since Union Berlin beat VfB Stuttgart after the 2018/19 season, Heidenheim had reason to feel relatively relaxed about their league position.

Two factors might shake the confidence of Schmidt’s team. For starters, the 2. Bundesliga opponent – yet to be determined– may be one of the strongest promotion contenders in quite some time. A rather humiliating home loss to Werder Bremen on the season’s final matchday also gave Schmidt and club CEO Holger Sanwald pause.

“When you lose a home game 1-4 you’re bound to be disappointed,” Sanwald told Sky Germany afterwards. “We obviously wanted to win the game, we didn’t do our homework. We can’t dwell on the disappointment for long. We’re in the relegation play-offs, which was our goal. We have to stay positive. We’ll dust ourselves off and carry on. We control our ability to remain in the Bundesliga.

“We have to do our homework now,” Sanwald continued. “We have two new chances. The relegation matches turn the scoreline back to 0-0. I believe we have a good team. We are approaching the matches with optimism and are looking forward to both games.”

“We can be disappointed about today’s game, but not about the fact that we are playing in the relegation play-offs,” Schmidt added, “We want to give everything we have in the play-offs. We will present ourselves differently on Thursday. we will shake it off.“

GGFN | Peter Weis