"Absolutely brilliant": Heidenheim striker Eren Dinkci is full of praise for a Bayern Munich player

"Jonas Urbig kept that one out brilliantly," praised Dinkci, explaining: "I deliberately aimed it a bit higher so he couldn't get a hand to it. The fact that he saved it is incredible. Of course, I'm also blaming myself for the fact that it didn't go in."

Had Dinkci found the net, it might even have been enough for Heidenheim to claim all three points in Munich. The bottom-of-the-table side had taken a surprise lead in the 22nd minute through Budu Zivzivadze, and Dinkci added to that shortly afterwards with his third Bundesliga goal of the season.

Bayern, whose manager Vincent Kompany had initially rested several regulars—as he had done the previous week in the 4-3 win at Mainz—pulled one back shortly before the interval through a direct free-kick from Leon Goretzka. Kompany introduced Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Luis Diaz and Joshua Kimmich at the interval, and Goretzka levelled shortly before the hour.

With the score at 2-2, Urbig denied Dinkci a clear chance, but Heidenheim soon restored their lead through Zivzivadze. They protected that advantage until the tenth minute of stoppage time, when Olise's shot struck the post and ricocheted off the back of Heidenheim goalkeeper Diant Ramaj into his own net, leaving the final score at 3-3.

FCH head coach Frank Schmidt had "changed the plan again yesterday" regarding the approach against the champions, Dinkci revealed. "We actually wanted to sit a bit deeper and be more compact at first. But then the manager said, 'No, we're not doing that—we've got nothing to lose.' That proved to be exactly the right approach, because it created far more attacking opportunities for us." Everyone accepted that "we'd have to work hard defensively and that Bayern would probably have 75 per cent possession. But the lads did a brilliant job; we relieved the pressure whenever we could. That was the plan."

Urbig, who replaced Bayern captain Manuel Neuer in goal, made his 17th appearance of the season; the 22-year-old is expected to deputise more regularly next term while the 40-year-old Neuer, increasingly likely to extend his contract by a year, continues his career. In the long term, Bayern intend to groom Urbig as Neuer's successor.

"It would be easy to focus on what didn't go well today. A lot of things could have been better, obviously. But we mustn't forget that the lads scored again right at the end and did everything they could to avoid losing the game," Bayern manager Kompany told Sky after the match. "We can take that into the next game; everything else are just details that we need to improve on."

Following the draw with Heidenheim, Bayern's focus swiftly returned to Wednesday's Champions League semi-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain, where they aim to overturn a dramatic 4-5 first-leg defeat and reach the final of Europe's premier club competition.

Meanwhile, Heidenheim briefly cut the gap to 16th place—the relegation play-off spot—to three points. The bottom side now needs St. Pauli (at Mainz) and Wolfsburg (versus Freiburg) to drop points on Sunday; otherwise, its slim hopes of climbing out of the relegation zone with wins over Köln and Mainz on the final two matchdays will evaporate.