Last-gasp Scienza strike keeps Heidenheim in Bundesliga
Heidenheim's Leo Scienza scored a last-gasp winner in a 2-1 second leg play-off victory at Elversberg on Monday, securing his side's top-flight status next season.
Unsere fantastische Reise in dieser Saison endet mehr als unglücklich in der Relegation gegen Heidenheim. Unsere Elv war in beiden Partien ein mehr als ebenbürtiger Gegner, am Ende fehlten wenige Sekunden bis zur Verlängerung.
— SV 07 ELVERSBERG (@SV07Elversberg) May 26, 2025
1:2 I 90.#DieElv #UnsereElv #ELVFCH pic.twitter.com/fgu4PZSVC3
A 2-2 draw in Thursday's first leg at Heidenheim meant the winner in Elversberg on Monday 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.
Wow, wow, wow
— HugoDerBayern (@hugoderbayern) May 26, 2025
Heidenheim logra la permanencia en Bundesliga al último segundo!
Elversberg se queda en 2da
Kratzig participó de la jugada, y Wanner dió la asistencia 👏🏻
Volverán a Munich siendo héroes
pic.twitter.com/JGDxMdhe8u
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 late goal keeps 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.
Elversberg, a town of just 13,000 who were promoted to the second division for the first time in 2023, will themselves play for a third season in a row in the Bundesliga 2.
The Bundesliga relegation play-off, played after the finish of the first and second division seasons, puts the 16th-placed top-flight side against the third-placed Bundesliga 2 team.
Since the play-off was reintroduced at the end of the 2008-09 campaign, the top-flight team has now won over two legs to keep their spot in the Bundesliga 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.
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