Second division soccer team FC St. Pauli has sent a clear signal in the fight for promotion to the Bundesliga. The table leader from Hamburg won the top game against second-placed Holstein Kiel 4:3 (3:0) on Friday evening.
What a spectacular game! Dapo Afolayan with two goals (11th, 36th minute), Marcel Hartel (34th) and Connor Metcalfe (57th) scored the goals in favor of the guests in the Holstein Stadium. Shuto Machino (53′), Joshua Mees (65′) and Alexander Bernhardsson (82′) scored for Holstein Kiel in this exciting game right up to the end, in which KSV almost managed to equalize.
With their 13th win of the season and now 48 points in their account, the brown-whites extended their lead in the table over KSV to six points. Despite the defeat, the Kiel team will remain in second place after this match day thanks to a four-point cushion over third-placed HSV, which hosts Elversberg on Sunday (1:30 p.m. in the NDR Livecenter).
“It speaks for the team that you come back after a 3-0 defeat,” Kiel’s Lewis Holtby told NDR after the game. And added: “The team has a lot of team spirit and a lot of morale.”
St. Pauli’s Hauke Wahl summarized: “We played incredibly well in the first half, but we came out of the break a bit unstable.” After that, Holstein was allowed to come back into the game: “In the end it will be tight and anything can happen – but we are very happy.”
Afolayan scores early, Kiel pushes for an equalizer…
St. Pauli’s lead came as a surprise on this turbulent evening, as the initial phase clearly belonged to Schleswig-Holstein. With consistent pressing, they challenged the guests in their own penalty area and had two good opportunities through Finn Porath (5th) and Machino (9th). However, the first goal of the game came from the brown-whites’ first chance, Afolayan, who slotted it into the right corner to make it 1-0 (11th).
After their unfortunate deficit, Kiel went one better and is pushing for an equalizer. The “Storks” improved from minute to minute – but the final luck was not on the hosts’ side. In the 19th minute, the Schleswig-Holsteiners were just one ball away from the deserved equalizer: after a shot from Tom Rothe, St. Pauli keeper Nikola Vasilj barely scratched the ball off the line, which was also confirmed by the VAR. Only millimeters were missing from 1:1.
… but St. Pauli remains ice cold in front of the KSV goal
17 minutes later it was dead quiet in the Holstein Stadium, apart from the visitors’ block. Because instead of 1:1 it was 3:0 for the guests, whose ice-cold efficiency that evening was reminiscent of the 5:1 in the first leg. A double strike from Hartel (34′) and again Afolayan (36′) made the traveling Hamburg team cheer and made Kiel’s coach Marcel Rapp’s brow furrow.
As powerful and passionate as his team played forward, they were just as ineffective and unfortunate when it came to finishing – and vulnerable when moving backwards. When Kiel lost the ball, St. Pauli easily outplayed their pressing formation and took advantage of almost every scoring opportunity that came their way. The game idea of guest coach Fabian Hürzeler, who placed Joschua Kemlein in midfield and left Johannes Eggestein on the bench, who was then replaced by Hartel, worked completely in the first 45 minutes.
Kiel is gaining hope again
The Schleswig-Holsteiners didn’t want to let the first half stand there and fought their way back into the game – with success: Machino finally broke the spell after 53 minutes and scored to make it 1-3. Kiel’s celebration was followed by a prompt setback: Jackson Irvine fed his Australian compatriot Metcalfe, who scored from close range to make it 4-1 for St. Pauli (57th). But Mees gave the Holstein fans hope again by making it 2-4 (65th).
St. Pauli is shaking its way to victory
And it crackled even more in the wide area when Bernhardsson reduced the score to 3:4 in the 82nd minute. What a final phase: The Kiel fans pushed their team forward, St. Pauli trembled. Bernhardsson missed the chance to make it 4-4 in the 89th minute. So in the end it was a happy sixth away win of the season for Hamburg.
Match statistics Holstein Kiel – FC St. Pauli
23rd matchday, February 23rd, 2024 6:30 p.m
| Holstein Kiel | 3 |
| FC St Pauli | 4 |
Gates:
- 0:1 Afolayan (11th)
- 0:2 Hartel (34.)
- 0:3 Afolayan (36.)
- 1:3 Machino (53.)
- 1:4 Metcalfe (57.)
- 2:4 Mees (65.)
- 3:4 Bernhardsson (82.)
Holstein Kiel: Weiner – T. Becker, Erras, Kleine-Bekel, Rothe – M. Schulz (46. Sander) – Porath, Remberg – Holtby (70. Bernhardsson) – Machino (84. Niehoff), Skrzybski (46. Mees)
FC St. Pauli: Vasilj – Wahl, Smith, Mets – Saliakas, Treu – Metcalfe (72. Boukhalfa), Kemlein (85. Dzwigala), Irvine – Hartel, Afolayan (77. Ritzka)
Viewers: 15034 (sold out)
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Sports club | 02/25/2024 | 10:50 p.m
