Freiburg 2-1 Heidenheim: Bundesliga Match Report
Our record: Freiburg · Heidenheim
Final Score
Freiburg
2 — 1
Heidenheim
Key Moments
Half-time: Freiburg 1-0 Heidenheim
Second half: Freiburg 1-1 Heidenheim
Final score: Freiburg 2-1 Heidenheim
Post-Match Analysis
Match Summary
Freiburg 2-1 Heidenheim finished as a one-goal win that was a one-goal lead at half-time too. Freiburg were 1-0 up at the break and the second period was shared 1-1, so the margin the hosts established in the first 45 minutes was the margin they still had at the end, with a goal each in between.
Heidenheim arrived bottom of the Bundesliga on 19 points from 29 matches with a goal difference of -32, five behind Wolfsburg in 17th and seven behind St. Pauli in the play-off place. Five rounds remained. Their recent form was the one encouraging thing they had: 3-3 at home to Leverkusen, 2-2 at Mönchengladbach and a 3-1 win over Union Berlin in their previous three, which is more than they had managed in most of the season. They had also beaten Freiburg 2-1 in the December meeting.
Freiburg were eighth on 40 with -5, comfortably above the trouble and comfortably below the European places, and had won two of five with a 2-3 at home to Bayern in between. There was very little at stake for them beyond position, which is often the condition in which a bottom side finds a result.
What It Settled
Freiburg moved to 43 points and a goal difference of -4, keeping seventh-place company and staying within reach of nothing in particular. For a mid-table side in April the useful measure is whether the season ends tidily, and three points against the division's bottom club is the minimum requirement for that.
Heidenheim stayed on 19 with the difference sliding to -33. Their three-match run of results ended, and with four rounds left they needed to make up five points on 17th and seven on the play-off place while holding the worst goal difference in the division. The loss did not create that situation, but it removed one of the four remaining chances to change it, and it did so in a fixture they had won in the reverse.
Prediction Review
Our pre-match call was Freiburg Win at 1.70. It came in, though not comfortably. We took a mid-table home side against the bottom club and discounted Heidenheim's recent draws as the last flourish of a team already down — a reading that was correct on the result and generous on the margin, since a single goal separated the sides across 90 minutes and Heidenheim scored in the second half. The December defeat at Heidenheim was a fair warning that this was not a mismatch, and the scoreline confirmed it. Verdict: won