FC St. Pauli is more threatened than ever with going into the 2nd league. A 1:2 (0:1) defeat at RB Leipzig further aggravated the situation in the relegation battle – but the Hamburgers still have salvation in their own hands.
After the goals from Xaver Schlager (45th minute) and Willi Orban (54th), Leipzig has secured the Champions League and will end the season in third place. St. Pauli, for whom Abdoulie Ceesay (86th) reduced the gap too late, remains second to last in the Bundesliga and, at least for the time being, was unable to overtake VfL Wolfsburg. Their immediate rivals will play against FC Bayern Munich on Saturday evening and would fall behind St. Pauli by five goals if they lost.
“One point would have been deserved, our plan worked out quite well. It’s bitter because more could have been possible”said St. Pauli’s coach Alexander Blessin in the Sportschau interview. “We’ve gotten up again and again this season, we have to do that now too, we have to deal with the pressure. The performance encourages me, anything is possible. We’re taking a lot of positive things with us.”
On the last match day there will be a direct duel between the “Wolves” and the “Kiezkickern”, who would save themselves from relegation with a win if Wolfsburg does not win against FC Bayern and 1. FC Heidenheim does not get six points from their last two games (Sunday at 1. FC Köln and at the end against Mainz 05). If St. Pauli doesn’t win, relegation is sealed without Bayern’s help.
St. Pauli doesn’t make enough of Leipzig’s weakness
Leipzig started with a lot of possession and a very strange scoring opportunity. Christoph Baumgartner couldn’t get the ball past Nikola Vasilj from close range, then Brajan Gruda followed up three meters in front of the opponent’s goal, but he made a ricochet that went straight to Ridle Baku, who missed the ball in front of the empty goal (8th). It was ruled offside, but the goal would probably have counted.
As unfortunate as Leipzig was in this action, it was just as unfortunate in the first half. The actual top team made countless mistakes on offense and was also really weak when it came to going backwards. The result was many St. Pauli counterattacks that were too often not played well – apart from one case when only centimeters were missing from the deserved lead: Andreas Houtondji served Martijn Kaars after a through pass, who shot the ball onto the crossbar from 13 meters (34th).
Goal from Schlager wakes up RB
St. Pauli missed a great opportunity to take the lead in Leipzig – and were then punished by a fluke just before half-time. After the first RB corner, Baumgartner headed into the back of Schlager’s knee, whereupon the ball remained at his feet and he shot it into the far corner under the crossbar (45th). The midfielder crowned his last home game in Leipzig; before the game he was dismissed because he did not want to extend his expiring contract.
Immediately after the break things got even worse for St. Pauli. First, Assan Ouedraogo hit the post from 15 meters, but this was followed by the second corner for RB – and the second goal. This time Orban used David Raum’s cross directly, his seemingly harmless header landed exactly in the far corner to make it 2-0 (54th). And from that moment on, Leipzig had everything under control.
St. Pauli minimizes the damage
The game took place almost exclusively in the “Kiezkicker” half and Leipzig worked much more diligently towards the back during the opposing counterattacks. But RB was under no pressure to act and did less and less – St. Pauli took advantage of this opportunity this time. Ceesay kept his nerve after a long ball and scored the goal (86th).
And Jackson Irvine actually still had the chance to win the all-important point – but he finished too unplaced (90th + 3). So Leipzig will be third after the 34th matchday, on which coach Ole Werner’s team will play at SC Freiburg, while St. Pauli’s chance of survival in the Bundesliga is at stake in the season finale.
