Schmidt looking forward to "unbelievable" Chelsea tie

On 28 November, Heidenheim, hailing from a small town with a population not much larger than the capacity of Chelsea's Stamford Bridge and who were in the fifth tier when Schmidt’s tenure began in 2007, welcome two-time European champions to their 15,000 capacity Voith-Arena.

To talk about a day that will go down in club history as arguably their greatest yet, Schmidt sat down with bundesliga.com to discuss life at the top, how he’s preparing for the visit of an English Premier League giant and what it is that makes his boyhood club so unique.

bundesliga.com: Chelsea are coming to Heidenheim for a competitive match. How does that make you feel as someone born and raised in Heidenheim?

Frank Schmidt: “For me, it was a long way off, even if everyone around here since the draw has come to me and said, ‘You’re playing against Chelsea!’. But I say, ‘Yes, but also against five other teams as well’. The fact Chelsea are now coming after we’ve won the first three games is honestly quite hard to believe. But the fact is they’re not coming here for a friendly, we don’t have to pay them. It’s a competitive fixture. Heidenheim and the entire region are really excited.

"It’s yet another highlight for us. We’re looking forward to it and will look to play this game with maximum determination. And we want to make sure we have a chance in this game. We’ll take it all as it comes. It’s the next tough game. But this is something we could only dream about for many years, and now it’s reality. We’ll try to show the best possible side of ourselves.”

Watch: Heidenheim - from the sixth tier to Europe

bundesliga.com: How much of a dream is it that Chelsea are now coming here on a level playing field?

Schimdt: “Very much so, obviously, but we can go back over the years, where there’s always been these situations. I started here in the fifth-tier Verbandsliga. There was no talk of Chelsea back then. But there was a vision of one day getting into the third division and then the second division. And we always had big traditional names against us as opponents. It was always like a dream come true and like a step we felt we’d reached that we thought wasn’t possible.

"So yes, we’re still trying to figure out how far things can really go for us. In reality, there isn’t much further we can go, but we all feel a sense of responsibility, especially in terms of our everyday work, which is the Bundesliga. That’s by no means a given, especially for the years to come, that Heidenheim remain in the Bundesliga. We should make sure our focus remains on that for as long as possible, do all we can to continue living this dream of playing in the Bundesliga. Everything else is a bonus, but we also won’t give anything away there either.”

bundesliga.com: It’s a bit of a cliché for the media when comparing the two clubs and their finances, plus a city like London with here. What’s your perception of that? Is it an extra boost for your team?

Schmidt: “If this was the first game at this level, then maybe it’d be an issue. But we’ve already played against Borussia Dortmund, against Bayern Munich – even come from behind to beat them. It’s not an issue. I want the team to first believe in the plan against Chelsea but also in their own strengths, and that we play our game and aren’t just out on the pitch dreaming, because that happens more so off the pitch. Really pragmatic. We’ll have a clear plan for the game. And it’s about playing this game and winning it. Those are the things I stand by with my team. I think only because we’ve always managed in recent years to believe in the chance and to give our all to reach the next step is why we’ve ultimately done so. And getting too caught up in romanticism, David vs. Goliath, the unimaginable, that won’t help us in the game. At the end of the day, this game is also 11 against 11, and the team that does their job will win.”

Watch: Heidenheim's incredible Bayern comeback

bundesliga.com: Talking of that Bayern match, what happened in that home game? It had been decades since Bayern had thrown away a 2-0 lead. How did you manage to get that performance out of your team?

Schmidt: “This is giving away secrets of what happened during half-time, but something extraordinary happened then as well. Without revealing too much but revealing a bit, the feeling on the outside when you’re 2-0 down to Bayern is that it can simply happen. But our performance wasn’t good enough. I was really annoyed and disappointed. I confronted the team at half-time, and then the team showed a completely different side to themselves in the second half. They understood what sort of respect and dedication you have to play with against Bayern, that we’d worked hard for in recent years to even have this game being played in the Bundesliga. I think we needed half-time to change a few fundamental things.”

bundesliga.com: You’ve done well and been consistent in the Conference League. You’ve basically been able to field two different teams. How does a smaller club like Heidenheim handle squad planning to the extent that you can basically field two different teams in the Bundesliga and the Conference League?

Schmidt: “Actually not much for planning the squad because the squad is just as strong as it was last year. But it was clear for me from the start that we had to spread the heavy workload across many shoulders, legs and heads. I don’t want to talk of a first or second XI, although lots of players have either played in the Bundesliga or the Conference League of late. But obviously none of us have any experience of this. I think we only had one midweek game in the whole of last season and now we’ve already had six or seven, and there are three more to come. We’ll end up rotating a lot because we have no other option to ensure we’re always fresh enough to play against teams with greater quality. At the end of the day, the focus is on the Bundesliga. We want to ensure we can celebrate staying up. But still, we’ll always put out a team that has the quality – as in past games – to get a result in the Conference League. So, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing. As for whether it’s always seven, eight or nine changes, we’ll see.”

bundesliga.com: Being in Europe means you can’t train as much, can’t practise things as much. Is the extra burden also a reason for Heidenheim currently being in the lower part of the table?

Schmidt: “Definitely, but we don’t want to use that as an excuse or complain. My wife recently told me, ‘You wanted this, so do it’. So, one point is definitely that we’re not able to train as much in terms of tactics and also the intensity, which we’ve always drawn on in recent years because we’ve always trained how we play. Now it’s more about analysing, recovering, preparing tactically for the next opponent with maybe just one session. That’s how it’s been in recent weeks. Again, we’re gaining experience there. We need to do better there; we want to do better there. Not looking for any excuses when things aren’t going right with results in the Bundesliga like recently. We’ve seen more cases of good luck and bad luck with us of late, although when it happens too often, then it’s no coincidence. We look at ourselves, not looking for any excuses, face that headwind that’s getting a bit stronger, and are convinced we’ll get some more points in the coming weeks up to the winter break, even though the games to come are tough ones.”

Watch: The remarkable rise of Heidenheim

bundesliga.com: There’s no end to the highlights coming up. You’ve got a tough run of Bundesliga fixtures to come against the likes of Leverkusen, Frankfurt, Bayern and Stuttgart. It feels like a great time for the team coming up.

Schmidt: “There’s also a cracker against Bochum, in Bochum, for the final game of the year. Plus the three games in the Conference League, yes, but these are games we got results in last year. And if you want to achieve your goal in the end, then it’s not enough to just get results against four or five rivals you see as on your level. You also need results beyond that. Like I said, results haven’t come our way of late, but every game was tight. That means we had a chance in every game – up until just before the end – to get something from it if the game had gone slightly differently. That’s the point I want to make to the team, that we want to keep believing and doing what we’re doing, keeping our heads up, facing up to that headwind and saying we’ll go to the limit in every game, because then it’s possible for us to get something from these crackers.”

bundesliga.com: You’re the face of Heidenheim’s success and have been for the last 17 years. How do you switch off?

Schmidt: “Honestly, it’s always easier when things are going well. But I’m still sleeping well. I manage to recover when sleeping. If you get enough, then you can tackle things again quickly. So, I’ve got enough energy. My whole team helps there, my private life and family help there. It’s football. You need to make the point these days that it’s still just football. There are more important things in the world. But still, every defeat annoys us, and we want to get back to winning ways as soon as we can after a defeat.”