1st Bundesliga goal for Eriksen
©IMAGO
A few days after the embarrassing 8-1 defeat against FC Bayern, VfL Wolfsburg scored an important three points. The Wolves defeated FC St. Pauli 2-1 (1-1) on matchday 17 of the Bundesliga thanks to a late goal from Dzenan Pejcinovic (88th minute). Christian Eriksen had previously given the home side the lead with a penalty kick (25th minute), before Eric Smith was able to equalize for the visitors before the break (40th). The Kiezkicker ended the first half of the season in a relegation zone.
The debacle in Munich only cost two players a place in the starting line-up at VfL: Mattias Svanberg and Kilian Fischer sat on the bench. St. Pauli had to painfully rebuild its first team: Jackson Irvine, the captain and great stabilizer of the past few weeks, had injured his left foot again. “It hurts incredibly,” said coach Alexander Blessin on Sky. Hamburg moved their defense chief Smith to the central midfield for Irvine and temporarily holed up in their own half with all eleven players.
With quality technicians like Eriksen and Lovro Majer, VfL actually had exactly the right people on the pitch to play in such a massive block. Eriksen had the next good chance just four minutes after his penalty goal, but this time the ball slipped over his instep after an assist from Majer (29th).
After that, however, Wolfsburg became careless. St. Pauli’s starting eleven debutant Ricky-Jade Jones had a great double chance to equalize in the 35th minute: First the Englishman failed from five meters to VfL goalkeeper Kamil Grabara. He then puts the follow-up shot past the goal from the same position. But just five minutes later it was 1-1 and the pattern was the same in both cases: Wolfsburg’s midfield line, which was so comfortable going forward, did not attack its own penalty area energetically enough. This repeatedly put St. Pauli in dangerous shooting positions.
After the break, Hamburg worked on more than just an away point. Joel Chima Fujita repeatedly pushed the guests forward. In the 50th minute he forced Wolfsburg’s goalkeeper Grabara into a remarkable save with a shot from 18 meters. Even after Africa Cup returnee Mohammed Amoura came on as a substitute (61′), VfL couldn’t think of much. The Wolfsburg game remained static and unimaginative in the second half, apart from a good shot opportunity for Adam Daghim (75th). Until Pejzinovic was there with his head.
Support from the fans was also temporarily stopped because there was a medical emergency in the FC St. Pauli fan block. The all-clear was promptly given. “The person is stable again,” announced the stadium spokesman.