Bundesliga on Sunday
Double expulsion for St. Pauli in a draw in Berlin
Updated April 5, 2026 – 6:24 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Apart from one dream goal, the game between the Berliners and Hamburgers was uneventful. St. Pauli unnecessarily weakens itself in stoppage time.
Due to their 1-1 draw (0-1), 1. FC Union Berlin and FC St. Pauli missed out on an important victory in the relegation battle of the Bundesliga on Sunday afternoon.
Mathias Pereira Lage gave the previously harmless Hamburgers the lead after 25 minutes with a fantastic volley. Shortly after the break, Andrej Ilić headed the equalizer from a corner (52′). In stoppage time, St. Pauli’s Jackson Irvine was sent off with a yellow-red card. They were the only two bookings in the entire game. In the excitement of the expulsion, St. Pauli’s assistant coach Peter Nemeth also saw the red card.
As a result of the draw, Union Berlin remains in tenth place with 32 points, while St. Pauli is still 16th in the table. and now has 25 points and has extended the lead over VfL Wolfsburg to four points.
Union coach Steffen Baumgart changed his starting eleven to five positions compared to the 4-0 defeat at Bayern Munich and relied on Oliver Burke and Ilić, among others, on the offensive. Meanwhile, Blessin had to do without defense chief Eric Smith, who had had to leave the Swedish national team injured a few days earlier. The 29-year-old and Tomoya Ando (adductors) were replaced by Karol Mets and Adam Dzwigala in defense, while St. Pauli coach Martijn Kaars was in attack.
Blessin described the duel as one of many finals that his team still had to face. The trainer emphasized that “you can’t afford to make so many slip-ups” in these situations. But in the Alte Försterei things got tricky for his team at the beginning: goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj, who had only secured the World Cup ticket against Italy with Bosnia-Herzegovina on Tuesday, was immediately challenged and parried a shot from Danilho Doekhi from close range (5th).
