Greuther Furth welcome Heidenheim to the 2. Bundesliga on Sunday carrying a form rating of 8.67 out of 10, a mark that sits five full points clear of their visitors' patchy 3.56. That 5.11 gap represents one of the widest splits Formatic's weighted form model registers across the division, and it sets the stage for a fixture where recent momentum pulls sharply in one direction. Furth have won 4 of their last 5 matches, scoring 11 goals and conceding only 4 across that sequence, and while all five outings were pre-season friendlies, the consistency of performance is telling. The sole blemish in that run was a 0-1 defeat at Bayreuth, sandwiched between two three-goal hauls, and even that reverse did little to dent the overall trajectory. Furth have found the net in 4 of those 5 outings and kept clean sheets in 2, a profile that speaks to control at both ends of the pitch.

Heidenheim's preparation has been far less assured. They arrive with 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats from their last 5, all of them friendlies, and the quality of those results varies wildly. A 9-0 demolition of Nordlingen offers little predictive value given the likely gulf in standard, while the performances against credible opposition have been less convincing. Heidenheim lost 1-3 at home to Hamburger SV in their most recent outing, fell 0-1 to FC Lugano and managed only a 1-1 draw away to Bologna. The lone competitive result in their wider context was a 2-1 win over SCR Altach, but taken together the sequence points to a side still finding rhythm. Across those 5 matches Heidenheim scored 13 and conceded 6, but strip out the Nordlingen anomaly and the picture is considerably more modest. They have scored in 4 of the 5 and registered 1 clean sheet, numbers that suggest vulnerability when pressed by opponents of similar calibre.

The head to head record over the last 10 meetings shows Heidenheim with 5 wins to Furth's 3 and 2 draws, but the recent trend has shifted. The last two encounters both finished 0-1 to Greuther Furth, with Heidenheim failing to score in October 2025 and again in October 2023. Before that, Heidenheim won 3-1 at home in October 2022 and 0-2 away at Furth in April 2023, while Furth's other recorded win came 0-1 at Heidenheim in April 2021. Across the full sample, meetings have averaged just 1.3 goals, with both teams on the scoresheet in only 1 of the 10 and over 2.5 goals landing in just 1 of 10. That profile suggests a fixture historically decided by narrow margins and defensive discipline, but Furth's recent attacking output and Heidenheim's shaky pre-season may shift the balance.

Given the form gap and the directional pull of recent results, Furth enter this fixture as the side with demonstrable momentum and the sharper edge in front of goal. Heidenheim's record against lower-tier opposition in friendlies flatters a sequence that looks far less convincing when measured against competitive peers. The head to head history points to tight contests, but the current data suggests Furth have the tools to control this one and extend their run into the new campaign.