St. Pauli beats Hertha BSC and knocks on the door to the Bundesliga

Osnabrück and Fürth lose

Two days after coach Fabian Hürzeler’s contract extension, FC St. Pauli found its way back to success in the 2nd Bundesliga. A week after the depressing 3-1 defeat at Schalke 04, the league leaders won 2-0 (2-0) against Hertha BSC in a one-sided game on matchday 25.

In front of 29,546 fans in the sold-out Millerntor Stadium, Manolis Saliakas (16th) and Marcel Hartel (44th) scored the goals before half-time on Sunday. Nine game days before the end of the season, St. Pauli is ten points ahead of the relegation place with 51 points. The hosts dominated from the start. After Hartel initially missed twice, Saliakas scored after a corner from 22 meters (16th). For Hamburg, who continued to dominate the game, Hartel gave Hamburg a reassuring lead before the break with a shot from the edge of the penalty area (44th).

Five minutes after the break, Saliakas missed Hamburg’s third goal with a shot that hit the crossbar. Hertha had their first chance after an hour and now played more pleasantly, but could no longer endanger the home team’s confident victory.

Thanks to Ache: 1. FC Kaiserslautern turns the game against VfL Osnabrück

Thanks to Ragnar Ache, 1. FC Kaiserslautern celebrated an important injury-time win in the relegation battle. Coach Friedhelm Funkel’s team won 3-2 (0-0) against bottom-placed VfL Osnabrück after being behind twice. Ache (67th minute/90th+3) was the match winner for the Palatinate team with his brace, where the late victory in front of 42,008 fans released great emotions.

Substitute Ba-Muaka Simakala had previously equalized 2-2 for FCK (78th). Erik Engelhardt (48th/69th) scored the guests’ two goals. With this success, the FCK achieved a major relief from the relegation battle. With now 28 points, the Funkel team moved slightly ahead of Hansa Rostock (25) and Eintracht Braunschweig (24). The defeated Osnabrück is already ten points behind Kaiserslautern with 18 points.

The second half was a wild ups and downs: Three minutes after the restart, Engelhardt did better than in the first half. The striker shot a corner that was too short into the goal from eight meters to make it 1-0 for the guests. A corner also helped Kaiserslautern score their first goal. Ache headed in a corner from Puchacz to make it 1-1. Kaiserslautern fell behind again, but turned the game around thanks to a strong final phase and striker Ache.

SpVgg Greuther Fürth fails against SV Elversberg: Stock scores three times

Being outnumbered, SpVgg Greuther Fürth suffered their next defeat and thus missed another chance to at least make legitimate claims in the snail race for third place. The ultimately very clear 1:4 (0:1) on Sunday against a calm and effective newcomer SV Elversberg was the Franconians’ fifth defeat in the last six games.

Paul Stock was the game decider for the guests as a three-time goal scorer (25th/72nd/82nd minute). Dominik Martinovic increased the score to the final score (87th) following an assist from Stock. For a long time it was a game of errors that the 11,651 fans in the Fürth sports park were treated to. The highlight was the 1-1, in which Elversberg goalkeeper Nikolas Kristof shot at Dennis Srbeny, who was running from Fürth, while trying to open the game (61st minute). A blackout!

Fürth’s Robert Wagner saw yellow-red shortly after the break after a tactical foul (49th). With ten men, coach Alexander Zorniger’s team came back thanks to goalkeeper Kristof. After an attack from Elversberg via Paul Wanner, which Stock finished with a follow-up shot to make it 2-1, nothing worked for Fürth.

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