Friday 17th December 2021
Surprises in the 2nd division
St. Pauli experiences a very dark evening in the cellar
FC St. Pauli will start the year 2022 as leaders of the 2nd Bundesliga, that is clear even before the last matchday of the old year. But on the 18th matchday it surprisingly went bankrupt. The second game of the evening also ended with a defeat for the favorite.
Holstein Kiel – FC St. Pauli 3-0 (3-0)
FC St. Pauli made a big mistake to finish off a great playing year. At the beginning of the second half of the season, the leaders of the 2nd Bundesliga suffered a rough 0: 3 (0: 3) defeat in the northern derby at Holstein Kiel, which will give the pursuers hope. In front of 8,700 spectators in the Holstein Stadium, Ex-St. Pauli professional Fin Bartels (8th minute), Finn Porath (29th) and Benedikt Pichler (45th + 1) scored the goals for KSV on Friday evening, which was able to move away from the relegation zone. The Kiezklub remains first despite the deserved fourth season bankruptcy.
St. Pauli started strong and had good chances through Jackson Irvine (2nd) and Daniel Kofi Kyereh (3rd), which KSV keeper Thomas Dähne destroyed. The Kiel did better and consistently exploited their first two opportunities to get in. St. Pauli struggled after the deficit against the defensive boss Hauke Wahl (Infekt), which was increased to five men. Kiel now counted on the counterattack in their own stadium and even increased again.
After the break, St. Pauli’s coach Timo Schultz tried to turn the match around with the addition of three fresh players. But not much came together on this day, which was used by the people of Hamburg. Pichler (50th), Fiete Arp (57th), Phil Neumann (68th) and Fabian Reese (78th) could have even added more for Kiel. As in November in Darmstadt (0: 4) there was nothing to be gained for St. Pauli.
Fortuna Düsseldorf – SV Sandhausen 0: 1 (0: 1)
Pascal Testroet gave the relegation-threatened SV Sandhausen a surprising away win against Fortuna Düsseldorf. Thanks to his goal in the 7th minute, the guests celebrated a 1-0 (1-0) success and improved to 16th place in the table for the time being. This means that Sandhausen is only three points behind the Düsseldorfers, who again failed to win at home in the last game of the year. After the eighth defeat of the season, coach Christian Preusser’s team is still stuck in the lower half of the table with 20 points, so the pressure on the criticized coach should increase again.
In front of 10,543 spectators in the Düsseldorf arena, Fortuna played with the same team as in the 1-1 draw against leaders St. Pauli, but fell behind early on. In a game that was slow and uneventful for a long time, SV Sandhausen got off to a tailor-made start. With the first shot on goal Testroet put the guests in the lead. Fortuna presented itself again with a three-way defense chain. The team tried to gain possession and share of the game, but found it difficult to build up the game against well-graduated guests and remained far too harmless and imprecise in its actions in front of the goal. Christoph Klarer had the best chance of scoring in Düsseldorf after about half an hour.
After the break, the hosts started with more pressure and more pull towards the goal. A heavy shot from Khaled Narey (70th) initially seemed like a wake-up call. Fortuna tried to increase the pressure to the front from a safe back four, but couldn’t turn it around. The most exciting scene was an initially given but then withdrawn hand penalty in the 86th minute.