A solitary second-half goal from Dominick Drexler was enough to see Aalen home against Heidenheim. The first-half saw Nejmeddin Daghfous miss a penalty, while Matthias Wittek had a goal ruled out for offside. Kevin Kraus was crucially, and correctly, sent off on the stroke of half-time, which gave Drexler and co. the momentum to go on and win the game.
Following a nil-nil draw with Greuther Fürth last weekend, Frank Schmidt and his men would have been confident of picking up a win against Aalen. He made two changes to that side, as Rouven Sattelmaier, Philip Heise, Julius Reinhardt and Smail Morabit dropped out of the starting eleven. Felix-Adrian Körber, Michael Vitzhum, Sebastian Griesbeck and Adriano Grimaldi taking their place.
Stefan Ruthenbeck's chargers surprised everyone when they beat high-flying Fortuna Düsseldorf to move off the foot of the table. That 2-0 victory jumped them up to sixteenth and ended a run of four consecutive defeats. Ruthenbeck couldn't have hoped for a better result and kept faith in exactly the same team that put Fortuna to the sword.
It didn't take long for young Körber to be called into action, with the third choice stopper making a fantastic stop from Andreas Hofmann's long-range strike. The opening ten minutes definitely weren't reflecting the teams' positions in the table. Aalen were dominating possession and territory, with the young goalkeeper having to be constantly on his toes, dealing with a range of crosses and through-balls; he was making a big impression on his 2.Bundesliga debut from the get-go.
Jürgen Gjasula went even closer soon after, with his beautifully curled costless-kick smashing the base of the post and evading the on-rushing Aalen players. The dominance continued, with Schmidt's side looking unusually quiet. The visitors then missed the most glorious chance of at all, when Daniel Siebert pointed to the penalty spot. Matthias Wittek was adjudged to have handled Dominick Drexler's cross, but it was a decision that could have went either way. Nejmeddin Daghfous stepped up and ballooned the penalty in the stands, with the winger looking on in disbelief.
Aalen were soon to pay the ultimate price, or so it seemed, as Wittek scrambled home from Marc Schnatterer's pin-point costless-kick. However, it was ruled out as offside by the linesman, with the Heidenheim centre-back seemingly not able to get the rub of the green from the officials. Both teams had their chances before half-time, although neither could make them pay; Kevin Kraus was sent off just as the whistle, after he went in dangerously with both feet on Drexler, a less than ideal end to a thoroughly entertaining forty-five minutes for Heidenheim.
This seemed to give the visitors the impetus, as they finally broke the dead-lock five minutes after the restart. A cross from Daghfous wasn't properly cleared by Wittek and, given the time and space, Drexler steadied himself to guide home a brilliantly executed half-volley. For his first goal of the campaign, it was finished with the confidence of a top goal-scorer, an absolutely huge goal for his club's season. The opener didn't wake Heidenheim up and the pressure continued; Körber was called into action yet again, though he was equal to the task this time.
Captain fantastic Schnatterer couldn't force his way through, despite some Barcelona-esque play. Even when he did manage to get a shot off, he was well denied by Daniel Bernhardt. Despite some late attempts from the hosts, Bernhardt and his defence remained resolute to record their second win in as many games. The win means they move out of the relegation zone and into fifteenth, with another big game against Nürnberg to come. As for Heidenheim, they remain in sixth and could fall down to eighth. Although a game against Erzgebirge Aue should have give them the perfect chance to bounce back.