AUDIO: St. Pauli plays in Leverkusen for a place in the cup semi-finals (1 min)
As of: February 2, 2026 4:54 p.m
FC St. Pauli has not won any of its last six Bundesliga games. The hope now lies in the quarter-final duel in the DFB Cup: Alexander Blessin’s team can play freely at Bayer Leverkusen.
The Bundesliga penultimate team goes into tonight’s game (8.45 p.m., in the NDR Livecenter) as clear outsiders. “It’s a do-or-die game. Far from any pressure to score points. The possibility of getting one step closer to the final is motivation enough. We’re all up for that,” said coach Blessin.
The Kiezkickers, who recently suffered a bitter 1-2 defeat at FC Augsburg, are currently not expected to do much. But true to the motto “We hardly have a chance, so we’ll use it,” Blessin is combative: “We kicked out Gladbach, kicked out Hoffenheim – why shouldn’t we do it in Leverkusen too?”
“The chance is small, it’s mediocre, I have no idea. But we definitely want to take advantage of it.”
Alexander Blessin
Fell way behind in the league
In fact, the signs in the previous cup rounds weren’t necessarily good either. Before the 8:7 penalty shootout against TSG Hoffenheim in round two, St. Pauli had suffered five defeats in a row. Before the 2-1 win in the round of 16 at Borussia Mönchengladbach, there were four more bankruptcies.
The victory with the “Fohlen” actually turned out to be a real wake-up call at the time. Thanks to five points from the following three games before Christmas, the Blessin team at least managed to climb to 16th place in the table.
But the situation has now worsened after the five match days in the new year. The Hamburgers are in a direct relegation spot and due to Mainz’s “soaring” St. Pauli is four points behind the relegation place and five points behind the saving bank.
Does St. Pauli gain new self-confidence in the cup?
“We have to accept the defeat and move on,” emphasized goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj after the defeat in Augsburg. Striker Martijn Kaars added: “We have to keep playing like this and believe in it, then we’ll get points again.” The belief would probably receive a big boost if Leverkusen managed to reach the cup semi-finals.
After all: St. Pauli’s cup face gives hope. For the third time in the past five years, the Kiezkickers are now in the quarter-finals. “I hope that it will go another round this time,” emphasized captain Jackson Irvine. Most recently, the end always came in the round of the last eight.
The first and only time that St. Pauli actually reached the semi-finals was 20 years ago. As a third division team, Hamburg reached the semi-finals. And at the same time the “bseries” – with the opponents burghausen, bochum, berlin and bremen – the club before bankruptcy.
“Cup goalkeeper” Ben Voll between the posts
So now bayer. “We can write history. From a historical perspective, it’s a great thing,” emphasized Blessin. The coach has already announced a change in goal: “Cup goalkeeper” Ben Voll will play instead of regular goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj. The 25-year-old is only number two in everyday Bundesliga action.
In recent years, Leverkusen have often fallen short of their own expectations, not least in the cup. The decisive stumbling blocks were always supposedly small opponents: the elimination came against Rot-Weiss Essen, Karlsruher SC, SV Elversberg or Bielefeld. Leverkusen won the Cup in 2024, but otherwise the Werkself were surprised by an underdog four times in five years.
And so, in the spirit of Alexander Blessin, who also sees the cup duel as a “welcome distraction” from the relegation battle, the question arises: Why shouldn’t St. Pauli continue this series?
Possible lineups:
Bayer Leverkusen: Blaswich – Quansah, Badé, Tapsoba – Palacios, Aleix Garcia – Vazquez, M. Tillman, Grimaldo, Poku – Schick
FC St. Pauli: Full – Ando, Smith, Mets – Saliakas, Sands, Rasmussen, Pyrka – Sinani, Fujita – Jones
