While Marco Rose was still warming up his players on the pitch, the crate of beer was already waiting in the hold of the Leipzig team bus. From the Saxons’ perspective, there was cause for exuberance and celebration in several ways. They not only won the complicated away game at 1. FC Heidenheim 2-1 (1-0) on Saturday and thus achieved their sixth win in a row, but also maintained fourth place in the table ahead of Borussia Dortmund for the time being.
Renewed participation in the Champions League is getting closer and closer for RB Leipzig. So even closer than already, because the fifth place in the table will most likely be admitted to the premier class due to the complicated constellation in the European Cups. But they don’t want to qualify through this additional starting place, said goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, “we have the ambition to at least get into the top four.” Rose said it was also “a very important victory” for the goal of staying ahead of BVB at the end of the season. The coach watched the game from the stands because of his yellow card suspension. Leipzig will host BVB next Saturday, and a preliminary decision about the final placement could then be made.
“You can be critical of the RB Leipzig construct, but something like that isn’t possible,” says Schmidt
The Leipzig team laid the foundation for this with goals from Benjamin Sesko (42nd) and Loïs Openda (85th). Substitute Nikola Dovedan had equalized for Heidenheim (69′). But unlike the home wins against FC Bayern and VfB Stuttgart and the draw against Dortmund, this time the promoted team was unable to make a profit against another favorite. For this reason alone, Frank Schmidt was “disappointed” and also “angry” afterwards, as the coach said, “the team will see in the analysis what we left behind.”
But Schmidt was even more annoyed by the odor nuisance that the Leipzig fans in particular were exposed to. Apparently, foul-smelling butyric acid had been distributed in the guest block. Although the stand area had been cleaned before the game, there was still a significant odor nuisance. One of the nose witnesses was Schmidt at his dugout, more than 50 meters away. “We also smelled,” he said, expressing his incomprehension of the protest and sabotage. “You can be critical of the RB Leipzig construct, but something like that is not possible,” said Schmidt, “I’m ashamed of that, you can only apologize to RB Leipzig.”
Before kick-off, both teams were pretty sure that they would achieve their respective goals for the season. The Heidenheimers went into the 30th matchday eight points ahead of relegation place 16. A lot would have to come together for Schmidt’s team to miss out on being moved into the next Bundesliga season. It would be more likely that Heidenheim Castle would slide off its mountain. The people of Leipzig felt like they were a little closer to their plan before their business trip to the Ostalb. They owe their almost assured qualification for the Champions League largely to those league rivals who are still represented in the European Cup.
The Bundesliga has almost reached fifth place for the premier class
Because FC Bayern and Dortmund in the Champions League and Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League each made it to the semi-finals in the past few days, the Bundesliga has almost reached fifth place in the premier class. In order to stay ahead of the competition from England and France in UEFA’s annual ranking, only a maximum of two victories for the German clubs in the European Cup are missing. So it could well be that Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen will help Leipzig qualify for Europe’s elite league.
However, Rose’s team struggled in Heidenheim. Although the guests dominated the action, it was primarily the Heidenheimers who countered in a straight line that initially had chances. The fact that Leipzig still took the lead was due to two Heidenheim defensive blunders in one scene. After David Raum’s cross, FCH captain Patrick Mainka jumped past the ball, irritating his defensive colleague Benedikt Gimber. The central defender didn’t hit the ball properly when trying to clear it and involuntarily laid it on for Sesko, who didn’t hit the ball fully, but enough to put it into the goal. After taking the lead, Leipzig missed the preliminary decision on several chances. Heidenheim, on the other hand, reached into his toolbox and used a standard situation to make it 1-1. Jan-Niklas Beste hit a free kick at the second post, Jan Schöppner headed it across, Dovedan nodded the ball in. But in the end Leipzig was ahead because Openda used a counterattack to score his 23rd goal of the season.
“Leipzig didn’t have to do that much to win the game,” said Schmidt. But even more than the narrow defeat, the smell stunk to him.