By 3:43 p.m., as Karlsruhe were leading against Aachen and Mainz’s own game tilted their way, Klopp was bursting and Heidel was close to tears. When Manuel Friedrich made it 2:0, the old curse was finally going to break. With a 3:0 win over Trier and Karlsruhe beating Aachen 1:0, promotion was secure.\n\n“This is what we’ve been trying to do for three years and now we’re simply happy.
I think we’ve earned it the hard way,” Heidel said with tears in his eyes on ZDF.