SC Freiburg significantly increased FC St. Pauli’s relegation worries with a happy home win. Julian Schuster’s team won 2-1 (1-0) on Sunday afternoon. Freiburg’s Christian Günter played for Breisgauer for the 441st time and is a record player.
The Freiburg goals came shortly before and shortly after the break: Yuito Suzuki gave the hosts the lead (40th), Maximilian Eggestein scored the 2-0 (50th). St. Pauli was once again very weak on offense, but took advantage of their first chance to score in the 70th minute through Louis Oppie to score the next goal. St. Pauli then pushed for an equalizer, but the guests were denied it.
“It looked very good for a long time, but in the end we made it a little too unnecessarily exciting”said Freiburg coach Julian Schuster after the game to the sports show, “But what counts are the points.” And when asked about Christian Günter’s record game, the coach said: “The number is unbelievable! He can be proud of it, we can be proud of it. And I’m really grateful to have such a captain.”
“The plan was for us to approach the game more defensively and close the spaces, which was the problem in the past games”explained St. Pauli coach Alexander Blessin later on the ARD microphone, “And we managed to do that well in the first 30 minutes. Then we get a stupid goal with – I’ll say – an unfortunate shot where the opponent is standing.”
Sportschau Bundesliga Highlights, Sportschau, November 9th, 2025 5:26 p.m
Vasilj was involved in both goals
The host took control of the game from the start, St. Pauli defended compactly in a 5-4-1 system and offered few gaps. But Freiburg’s patience paid off: Jan-Niklas Beste failed from the left to Nikola Vasilj (14th), and Suzuki from a similar position from the right. But then the goal came – after a corner: St. Pauli keeper Vasilj didn’t punch away the cross from the right side decisively enough, Suzuki, standing free, fired a dry volley into the near corner.
Hamburg’s goalkeeper, who has come under increasing criticism, was also involved in the home team’s second goal: after a cross from Vincenzo Grifo from the left halffield, Beste passed sharply back into the middle from the baseline to the right of the goal. Vasilj deflected the ball, but right at the feet of Eggestein, who had no problems from five meters.
St. Pauli is hopeful
Then, out of nowhere, Alexander Blessin’s team’s 487-minute goal drought ended – perhaps also because captain Jackson Irvine came into the game: After a bad pass from Johan Manzambi, Pereira Lage passed from the right into the middle. Beste defended too short, Connor Metcalfe set up for Oppie, who sank the ball high into the goal from about seven meters away. It was the first shot on goal that the guests had fired at Freiburg’s goal in this game.
Sports show, November 9th, 2025 6:20 p.m
The guests now smelled the morning air and presented themselves in a much more offensive manner. Blessin brought on Abdoulie Ceesay and Danel Sinani, and just a little later Freiburg were lucky when an Irvine shot narrowly missed Noah Atubolu’s goal.
A duel between Manzambi and Joel Chima Fujita in stoppage time caused excitement, in which the Freiburg player fell over the high advertising board and remained lying on the cobbled ground. After a short time, the Swiss got up, climbed back over the boards and got back into the game.
Lots of applause for Günter
Christian Günter received a lot of applause from the fans when he was substituted in the 58th minute: The 32-year-old played his 441st competitive game for Breisgauer and is the club’s record player.
Freiburg at Bayern, St. Pauli against Union
Freiburg will be visiting FC Bayern Munich on Saturday afternoon after the international break (3:30 p.m.). St. Pauli welcomes 1. FC Union Berlin on Sunday evening (5:30 p.m.).