Darmstadt relegated from Bundesliga after 20th defeat of season

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BERLIN (AP) — Darmstadt was relegated from the Bundesliga on Sunday with a 1-0 loss at home to fellow promoted side Heidenheim.

Darmstadt, which finished runner-up behind second-division champion Heidenheim last year, remained bottom of the Bundesliga with just 17 points from 31 rounds. It can't catch Mainz (28 points) in the relegation playoff spot with only three rounds remaining.

Heidenheim forward Nikola Dovedan scored in the final minute to confirm the home team's fate. Darmstadt needed a win to have any hope of somehow escaping the club’s fourth relegation from Germany's top league.

Darmstadt has won one game at home all season – a 4-2 victory over Werder Bremen in October.

Some Darmstadt supporters left after Dovedan scored, but the majority stayed to console the players after the final whistle by chanting and cheering.

"We know what it was like here a year ago when we were promoted, how the tides change in sport, there are also these moments of absolute defeat and relegation. It's part of football life," Darmstadt coach Torsten Lieberknecht said.

"I don't think we need to be ashamed to walk through Darmstadt. Disappointed and dejected, but not ashamed,” Lieberknecht said. "When I think of Bremen, that should have been a game-changer, spurred us on for the season. And these are the moments, when you think back on them, that hurt the most."

Heidenheim, with 37 points, is virtually assured of survival in its first ever season in the Bundesliga. Frank Schmidt's team would need to lose all its remaining games to even risk being demoted through the playoff spot occupied by Mainz. Heidenheim hosts Mainz next weekend.

"It would be difficult for us now not to survive," Schmidt said as his players celebrated.