A top team on the road: Werder Bremen has already celebrated its fifth away win this season at FC St. Pauli. The goals from Derrick Köhn (24th minute) and Marvin Ducksch (54th) made it 2-0 (1-0) and the third goal in a row with a clean sheet. Only FC Bayern (17) scored more points away from home than Werder (16), while the Saint Paulians were unable to start a home series.
St. Pauli recently celebrated its first Bundesliga home win against Holstein Kiel in 5,039 days and wanted to follow up against Werder. The promoted team started the game accordingly bravely, played with commitment and attack, but not dangerous enough. Despite the superiority, there were initially no chances to score in an intense but unattractive game. A shot from Johannes Eggestein (18th) was the best scene.
He was annoyed with the sports show about how things were going: “I am of the opinion that there was more to it. We were doing well, especially in the early stages of the first half, and then we conceded a goal.“
Köhn makes Werder surprisingly cheer
But then Bremen struck practically out of nowhere. Jens Stage initially asserted himself strongly and then kept an overview, he passed it across to Köhn, who made it 1-0 with a low shot from 15 meters (24th). Werder wasn’t in top form, but was still an away power. There had already been four wins in the league on foreign venues, plus two successes in the DFB Cup.
After that, St. Pauli continued to struggle, but with the same output as before the Köhn goal. Instead, Nikola Vasij had to prevent the second goal from being conceded shortly before the half-time whistle after a shot from Marco Grüll (41′). Nevertheless, the second home win in a row seemed far away for St. Pauli at that point.
Werder keeps an overview in the fog on St. Pauli
The second half started slowly and after a few minutes it came to a complete standstill. Because both fan camps set off pyrotechnics, there was so much smoke at the Millerntor that the game had to be interrupted. It was only after more than ten minutes that we could continue.
St. Pauli initially managed the restart better, Danel Sinani shot just over from 22 meters (49th), Eggestein then into the arms of Michael Zetterer. Even better from the Bremen goalkeeper: He switched immediately, hit Mitchell Weiser, who put Ducksch in the spotlight – and the completed volley, which was worth seeing, made it 2-0 (54th). “We killed the game at the right moments“, Ducksch stated dryly on the sports show microphone.
Bremen’s Stark “gives” St. Pauli the best chance
Immediately afterwards, St. Pauli came closest to scoring their own goal when Werder defender Niklas Stark headed the ball onto his own crossbar after a corner (56th). After a mistake by Senne Lynen, Carlo Boukhalfa put Zetterer through another test from distance, but the goalkeeper passed this time too (69′). St. Pauli fought and played well at times, but the decisive punch was missing in the final third.
Because nothing changed until the end of the game, Hamburg missed a great opportunity to gain a little breathing room in the relegation battle. With a win, the lead over the last three places would have increased to four points, at least for the time being – 1. FC Heidenheim plays against VfB Stuttgart on Sunday. On the other hand, Werder can aim for the European places in seventh place and coach Ole Werner was happy about “a very controlled performance.“
St. Pauli in Stuttgart, Bremen against Union Berlin
St. Pauli is heading to Stuttgart next weekend (December 21st, 3:30 p.m.). At the same time, Bremen welcomes the Union Berlin team.