Last-gasp Scienza strike keeps Heidenheim in Bundesliga

New Straits Times

6 days ago

BERLIN: Heidenheim's Leo Scienza scored a last-gasp winner in a 2-1 second leg play-off victory at Elversberg yesterday, securing his side's top-flight status next season.
A 2-2 draw in Thursday's first leg at Heidenheim meant the winner in Elversberg yesterday would play in the Bundesliga next season.
Heidenheim, who were third from bottom in the top division, took the lead through Mathias Honsak after nine minutes in front of a sold-out crowd of 9,200 at the Kaiserlinde Stadium.
Elversberg, who finished the season third in the second division, helped their bid to become the smallest Bundesliga side in history when Robin Fellhauer equalised just after the half-hour mark.
They looked to have taken the lead just two minutes after half-time when Tom Zimmerschied tapped in from close range, but the goal was overturned for offside after a lengthy VAR review.
With the match heading for extra-time, Paul Wanner played Scienza into space and the Brazilian blasted a shot past the goalkeeper, sending the visiting side into raptures.
The 4-3 aggregate triumph means Heidenheim, who this season played in the Conference League, in the top-flight for a third straight campaign.
Visiting coach Frank Schmidt played for the club and took over as coach when Heidenheim were in the fifth division, before piloting them to the top flight.
Schmidt said he was "mega happy, mega proud of the team and the club," but said he was too spent to celebrate.
"I put everything into this. I'm empty, I've got nothing left, no energy. Tomorrow no matter who tries to call me, I won't be answering."
Elversberg tested their top-flight opponents throughout, finishing with 65 percent possession.
Coach Horst Steffen told Sky Germany: "To have such a performance and still lose, that hurts. The boys deserved better for what they showed today."
Elversberg's defeat means Hamburg and Cologne are the only two teams promoted to the top flight, while Holstein Kiel and Bochum will play second division football next season.
Elversberg, from a town of just 13,000, were promoted to the second division for the first time in 2023.
Since the play-off was reintroduced at the end of the 2008-09 campaign, the top-flight team has now won over two legs in 14 of 17 seasons.
The most recent second-division side to win promotion via the play-off was Union Berlin, who came through on away goals against Stuttgart in 2019.