St. Pauli like a relegated team: Gladbach smashes their winless streak

As of: November 1, 2025 7:08 p.m

After 15 league games in a row across the season without a win, Gladbach has gotten rid of all their frustration. Host St. Pauli presented itself like a relegated team.

In the well-deserved 4-0 (2-0) for Borussia, who hit the woodwork twice, Haris Tabakovic laid the foundation stone with a brace (15th/40th), after the substitution the two jokers Shuto Machino (75th) and Oscar Fraulo (80th) scored for the final score.

Polanski saw the good steps ahead

Eugen Polanski, who is still waiting for his promotion to Gladbach head coach, said afterwards in the Sportschau interview: “Of course I’m proud, every win in the Bundesliga is not an everyday occurrence. At no point did I have the feeling that my team was giving up the game, and we hardly allowed anything to happen. But we also took good steps in the right direction recently when the results weren’t there yet.”

His colleague Alxeander Blessin was annoyed: “Heavy, hard – that’s my analysis. It’s not the first time that we’ve conceded such cheap goals. And at the moment we’re unfortunately far from recovering from it. Now everyone, including me, has to question themselves as to whether I’ve found the right words.”

Match winner Tabakovic celebrated his colleagues despite having three goals on ARD: “I’m happy and very proud of the team. We showed from the start that we really wanted this win, and the desire to defend was there too. And of course we would like to continue with Eugen Polanski.”

The initial phase of the game was clearly influenced by the circumstances that had put St. Pauli and Gladbach in their threatening situations. The hosts were saddled with five league defeats in a row, VfL celebrated their last success on March 29th – so they didn’t win in the entire summer period. Accordingly, the first issue was avoiding errors. The focus was on duels and closing down the defense; when in doubt, the long ball from the defense was preferred to an orderly build-up.

Vasilj’s mistake leads to a deficit

After a quarter of an hour the shooting ratio was 0:1, but Franck Honorat’s attempt from a tight angle did not pose any problems for Nikola Vasilj. But the Pauli keeper took care of that himself. Completely unchallenged, the Bosnian played the ball to Florian Neuhaus, who was rudely cleared away by James Sands. Shortly before the foul, the Gladbach player tipped the ball into the path of Tabakovic, who shot from a tight angle. The goal was checked for a possible offside position for several minutes, but Tabakovic was just in the green area.

St. Pauli then increased the pressure a little and had significantly more possession of the ball, but without really becoming dangerous. Gladbach’s defense – again with midfielder Philipp Sander on the right in the back three – was very concentrated, only in the 25th minute did goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas have to intervene twice: first he deflected Hauke ​​Wahl’s angled shot to the side, then he was there again for Manolis Saliakas’ long-range shot.

Scally hits the post, Tabakovic raises it

Gladbach limited themselves to defense in this phase, but remained extremely dangerous in the very few moments of relief. In the 27th minute, Nicolas found Joe Scally with a long ball, who was completely alone and able to run towards Vasilj. The American had already overcome the keeper, but the ball bounced off the left inside post and back into the field.

Five minutes before the break, Tabakovic, who Borussia only borrowed from Hoffenheim, was better off again because their captain and leader Tim Kleindienst seriously injured his knee. But the Bosnian has proven to be a stroke of luck so far, his cool finish after preparatory work by Lukas Ullrich and Honorat was already his fifth league goal.

Vasilj keeps St. Pauli in the game

Even after the break there was shockingly little from Hamburg. The ball possession rate was still just under 60 percent, but what the Kiez kickers did was worthy of the second division. In addition, there was sometimes outrageous defensive behavior. With a free kick from Honorat after 55 minutes, three Gladbachers were free at the top. Tabakovic rose highest and was able to choose the corner – but Vasilj directed his header onto the post with an outstanding save.

The hosts’ frustration grew noticeably, and after an hour Saliakas was happy that he got away with a yellow card for his outstretched tackle against Ullrich. St. Pauli was further away from the goal than Gladbach was from 3-0: Tabakovic shot a ball just past the right post, Yannik Engelhardt was denied by Vasilj. At the other end, only Eric Smith caused some danger with a 22-meter shot, but Nicolas directed the ball around the post.

Choice too passive, Machino thanks him

Then the guest coach did advertising on his own behalf. First he substituted Machino, who, after preparatory work by Neuhaus and Tabakovic, made the preliminary decision – St.Pauli defender Wahl kept a meter’s distance instead of pressuring the Japanese.

The fourth goal also revealed signs of dissolution in Alexander Blessin’s team. Fraulo – Polanski had also substituted him shortly before – had to win a duel in front of his goal, but against his teammate Tabakovic, who was also free and wanted to shoot.

St. Pauli in Freiburg, Gladbach against Cologne

St. Pauli will be guests at SC Freiburg on Sunday afternoon (3:30 p.m.). Gladbach welcomes 1. FC Köln on Saturday evening (6.30 p.m.).