Uefa Conference League: Hearts v Heidenheim
Venue: Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh Date: Thursday, 6 November Kick-off: 20:00 GMT
Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Sounds & BBC Sport website & app
Heidenheim are the type of fairytale story which has become rarer and rarer in modern football.
The club from a small town in the south of Germany have come from the fifth tier to the Bundesliga and European football on an epic journey which spans 17 years.
There has been no sugar daddy. No oil-rich nation, large club network, or Hollywood stars investing their cash. Just an extremely modest budget made to stretch an almighty way.
The credit for that has to go to manager Frank Schmidt, who has been in charge for every game of their incredible rise since 2007.
The 50-year-old former player is from Heidenheim itself, another heartwarming touch, and eschews the norm of short-term managers and quick fixes.
The man in the dugout next to him at Tynecastle on Thursday night, Hearts head coach Neil Critchley, could only dream of such longevity having been brutally sacked after 12 games by Queens Park Rangers last year.
He’s far from the only one.
Hearts and Heidenheim both have two wins from two so far in the Conference League and those 100% records will be put to the test in Edinburgh.
With Critchley starting brightly there is justified confidence Hearts can maintain their momentum, but this group of Bundesliga underdogs are about as far from a soft touch as it’s possible to get.
It was the final day of the 2023-23 season when Heidenheim secured promotion to the Bundesliga for the first time, somehow scoring twice in stoppage time to beat Jahn Regensburg 3-2 and leap from third to first, denying giants Hamburg a return the top-flight in the process.
It is that determination and spirit which has characterised their rise – they managed to come from 2-0 down to beat Thomas Tuchel’s Bayern Munich 3-2 last season.
Almost half of the squad who got them out of the second tier are still there, and almost all are players who started at bigger clubs like Borussia Dortmund or Wolfsburg, but never made the grade.
The majority of Schmidt’s group have played outside of the Bundesliga for most of their careers, plying their trade in Germany’s lower divisions.
They play like a team with a point to prove every week and Schmidt has them extremely well drilled, setting them up as a traditional underdog which thrives on defending, counter attacking at speed, and making the most of set-pieces.
Work-rate is a non-negotiable for Schmidt, and his team covered the most distance in the Bundesliga last season and ranked third for intensive sprints.
That recipe lead to an eighth place finish, clinched after a 4-1 win over Cologne on the final day of the season.
While Hearts will face a formidable challenge from Heidenheim, it may not be as stiff as it would have been last season.
As with any small club which finds success bigger clubs swooped for their best players in the summer.
Jan-Niklas Beste was sold to Benfica for £8m, Tim Kleindienst went to Borussia Monchengladbach, and Eren Dinkci’s loan from Werder Bremend ended.
Between them they scored 30 of Heidenheim’s 50 league goals. Beste also contributed 11 assists, often from excellent set-pieces.
The club, with by far the lowest budget in the Bundesliga, did not spend big to replace the trio, and the start of this season has been mixed.
They are 13th in the league with three wins from nine and have only won one of their last six games, against Pafos in the Conference League.
Another positive for Hearts is Schmidt has tended to rotate his team for European games, with regular Bundesliga starters sitting on the bench on Thursday nights.
Paul Wanner, the on loan Bayern Munich number 10 with a big reputation, has yet to start in this competition despite scoring the winner against Olimpija Ljubljana.
The 18-year-old is the youngest ever player to feature for Bayern having done so when he was just 16, and has been likened to Kai Havertz and Florian Wirtz already in his short career.
Heidenheim’s strength undoubtedly is the collective, though. The club and its fans are living a dream which they will give everything to continue at Tynecastle.
