A tough battle at the Alte Försterei remained without a winner: 1. FC Union Berlin and FC St. Pauli drew 1-1 (0-1) in the Bundesliga on Sunday afternoon after an intense game.
After splitting the game, St. Pauli took a 1-0 lead in the first half through Mathias Pereira Lage (25th minute). In the second half, the increasingly superior hosts equalized to 1-1 in the 52nd minute through Andrej Ilic. While Union is now largely secure in the middle of the table with 32 points, St. Pauli is still stuck in the relegation place with 25 points.
At the Alte Försterei, the hosts’ fan base had only one thing in mind: to scream their team to victory – and thus put ten points between Union and today’s opponents St. Pauli and the relegation place. Because that should more or less certainly mean staying in the league with seven match days to go.
Union coach Steffen Baumgart said: “We certainly imagined a little more beforehand, but we are satisfied with the partial success. In terms of how the game went, more would certainly have been possible for us.” His counterpart Alexander Blessin found: “We survived the Berlin pressure phase quite well at the beginning. We lacked the physicality going forward to get more. The point can still help us in the end.”
Battle of attrition expected between Union and St. Pauli
Both teams had shown little accuracy in the past few weeks – a tough battle of attrition with dominant defenses was generally expected. However, Union had recently shown a strength in detail: objections. Such a person almost took the lead after just four minutes. After Jannik Haberer’s throw-in, defender Danilho Doeki came out of the turn eight meters in front of the Hamburg goal, and St. Pauli keeper Nikola Vasilj raised his fists and made a strong save.
St. Paulis Pereira Lage scores dream goal
St. Pauli had only scored 24 goals in 28 games this season – a significant deficit in the Bundesliga. Coach Alexander Blessin tried a new line-up on the left offensive line in Berlin: Pereira Lage was allowed to play there. The Frenchman usually feels most comfortable in central midfield, but should now provide pace and attack on the left.
The first chance for the guest came from a set piece. A corner from the left was played short, Danel Sinani’s flat cross caught defenseman Karol Mets completely free, but was narrowly missed from twelve meters away (22′). Three minutes later, Union keeper Frederik Rönnow was defeated. And it was actually Pereira Lage who broke the spell. After a long ball that was deflected too short, it fell on his left foot – the 29-year-old hit the ball with his full instep and drove the thing under the crossbar from a good 18 meters at 118 km/h to make it 0-1 (25th). Rönnow’s fists shot up too late.
Union relies on standards
Union reacted angrily. Especially with crosses. From the running game, but especially from set pieces. In the 32nd minute, a corner flew high onto the second post, where Ilic rose highest but couldn’t get enough pressure behind his header to beat Vasilj. Five minutes before the half-time whistle, Union had a double chance: First, the skilful Oliver Burke was denied by the rushing Vasilj, and Woo Yeong, who had moved up, shot the rebounding ball onto the keeper’s left knee (40′).
St. Pauli also entrenched themselves massively in their own half at the beginning of the second half – in anticipation of Union’s force, with which the Berliners traditionally compensated for their limited playing options. The pressure grew, and crosses from the right and left kept flying into the guests’ penalty area. A little more relief would have been good for St. Pauli in this phase. But center forward Martijn Kaars – brought in from the 2nd league by 1. FC Magdeburg before the season – was hardly able to make an impact up front and the outside players remained increasingly occupied with defensive tasks.
Union’s Ilic flies perfectly into the ball – 1:1
After 52 minutes the time had come: Another corner sailed sharply from the right into the Hamburg penalty area and this time Ilic flew perfectly into the trajectory of the ball and headed it in from six meters to make it 1-1. The equalizer was well deserved and logical.
In the 67th minute, the Hamburg keeper, who had been so strong until then, made a very bad mistake. During the build-up, Vasilj played the ball flat into the center – into the feet of Union’s Andrasch Schäfer. He went towards the keeper alone, but shot at Vasilj from 15 meters. That was the really big opportunity to take the lead in Berlin.
Union dominates the fighting game
The game now developed into a single fighting game. The ball flew from penalty area to penalty area like a pinball ball, but the majority of the flying balls sailed into Hamburg’s penalty area.
On the sidelines, St. Pauli’s coach Blessin excitedly consulted with Co. Peter Nemeth. How could you take away the drive from the hosts? The team’s own people were asked to put in even more effort; it was at least enough to prevent them from conceding another goal. In the end, St. Pauli was somewhat lucky to take a point from Berlin. Even though captain Jackson Irvine had to leave the field with a yellow-red card in stoppage time after a tough challenge against Schäfer.
Union in Heidenheim, St. Pauli against Bayern
The upcoming program for both teams: Union will be guests at 1. FC Heidenheim on Saturday afternoon (3:30 p.m.). St. Pauli welcomes Bayern Munich on Saturday evening (6:30 p.m.).
