Last placed Bundesliga side Heidenheim certainly delivered an interesting result on Saturday afternoon. The smallest club in the German top flight nearly pulled off a sensational upset victory over German record champions Bayern Munich.
Carrying a 3-2 lead into second half injury time, Franck Schmidt’s FCH nevertheless only earned one point via a 3-3 draw after Bayern’s Michael Olise snatched an equalizer at 90+10. The fact that Heidenheim earned one point instead of three renders matters interesting.
Can Heidenheim still be relegated this weekend?
They can. If both St. Pauli (against Mainz) and Wolfsburg (against Freiburg) win their Sunday fixtures, Heidenheim (on 23 points) can no longer hope to catch up. This is because Wolfsburg and St. Pauli face each other on the season’s final matchday. Schmidt admitted that he hadn’t quite figured that out when speaking alongside Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany at the post match press conference.
Frank Schmidt’s ‘relegation race’ arithmetic
“If we lost today, we could have been relegated tomorrow,” Schmidt began in response to a journalist’s question about the relegation race, posing a question himself after his opening remark “That’s now not possible tomorrow?“
A journalist reminded him of the potential permutation.
“Phrew,” Schmidt replied. “I’m actually a qualified bank clerk, but I can calculate that quickly. Look, it honestly doesn’t matter and I’ll tell you why: Other places [in the table] don’t interest me.
“I can simply convey to you that if we continue to play as we have in recent weeks and today, I believe we can win our final two games,” Schmidt continued. “And the only time to look at the table is after [the season] is over.“
