Heidenheim will welcome NK Olimpija Ljubljana to Voith-Arena on Thursday in both teams' first fixture of the Europa Conference League league phase. The hosts got past Hacken in the playoff round to reach this stage, while their visitors navigated their way through three qualifying rounds to reach the main competition for the second straight season. © Imago Heidenheim will begin their Europa Conference League league-phase bid on Thursday, in what is their first-ever continental campaign after a historic eighth-placed finish in their debut Bundesliga season last time around.
That earned them a place in the playoff round of Europe's tertiary competition, leaving them needing one aggregate victory to book a spot in the league phase, and Frank Schmidt 's side took a 2-1 advantage into their home leg against Hacken in late August as Sirlord Conteh and Leo Scienza got on the scoresheet in Sweden. The slender lead did not appear to be enough for the German outfit, though, as they fell 2-1 behind in the second leg with 10 minutes remaining, but Paul Wanner drew them back level on the night with six minutes remaining before Mathias Honsak wrapped up a 5-3 aggregate win in injury time. Schmidt's men now return to continental action on the back of a pleasing start to their second consecutive Bundesliga campaign, currently sat sixth in Germany's top flight on nine points from their first five outings, most recently bouncing back from consecutive defeats with a 2-0 victory away at Mainz o.