Heidenheim vs. Olimpija Ljubljana preview: Team news and predicted lineups
| Voith Arena, Heidenheim | Felix1846 CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Excitement is building ahead of Heidenheim's maiden European campaign after the Bundesliga club beat BK Häcken 5-3 on aggregate to qualify for the UEFA Conference League, a remarkable achievement for a club that was in the fifth tier of German football in 2008.
After an impressive eighth-place finish in the Bundesliga last season, Heidenheim have lost three of their key players in Jan-Niklas Beste, Eren Dinkci and Tim Kleindienst.
Despite this, Frank Schmidt's men have made an impressive start to the new campaign and are sixth in the table after bouncing back from two defeats in a row with a 2-0 win over Mainz at the weekend.
Thursday's opponents, Slovenian capital side NK Olimpija Ljubjana, have every reason to be confident as they're on a 21-match unbeaten run in all competitions heading into Germany, most recently beating Primorje 2-0.
They made it through three qualifying rounds to the Conference League, beating Polissya Zhytomyr, Sheriff Tiraspol and Rijeka.
Heidenheim will be hoping that Leo Scienza and Mathias Honsak have recovered from injuries that kept them out of the win over Mainz. Niklas Dorsch is available despite seeing red in that win, while Julian Niehues is the only certain absentee for the Germans.
The Slovenian visitors appear to have no injury concerns.
Click here to see our predicted Heidenheim vs. Olimpija Ljubljana lineups.
