2nd league
FC St. Pauli back at the top – HSV wins at Schalke
St. Pauli’s goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj celebrates the win against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. photo
© Michael Schwartz/dpa
FC St. Pauli is back at the top of the 2nd Bundesliga table. Nuremberg and Hamburger SV also win. On the other hand, a Hansa debut failed.
The FC St. Pauli regained the lead in the 2nd Bundesliga with a win against 1. FC Kaiserslautern.
Coach Fabian Hürzeler’s team won 2-0 (1-0) in front of 29,546 spectators in the sold-out Millerntor Stadium. Elias Saad (34th minute) and Marcel Hartel (64th) scored for St. Pauli. For Kaiserslautern it is the seventh league defeat in a row.
Thanks to storm jewel Can Uzun, 1. FC Nürnberg got off to a dream start in the second half of the season and spoiled Mersad Selimbegovic’s debut as coach of Hansa Rostock. With a brace in the 15th and 36th minutes, teenager Uzun was the man of the game in a 3-0 (2-0) win in front of 27,763 spectators. Jens Castrop scored the third goal for Nuremberg (51st). Coach Cristian Fiel’s team can move further up the table, but the Rostock team slipped from relegation place 16 to direct relegation place 17.
Meanwhile, newly promoted SV Elversberg stopped its series of defeats. The Saarland team drew 2-2 (0-1) from Hannover 96 in front of 8,150 spectators and celebrated another point win after three defeats. The guests from Lower Saxony, on the other hand, remained without a win for the sixth game in a row and, like Elversberg, are stuck in the middle of the table. Nicolo Tresoldi scored the goals for Hannover (8th minute/69th). Jannik Rochelt (57th) and Frederik Jäkel (60th) scored for Elversberg.
HSV wins top game at Schalke
Hamburger SV set an example in the top game in the evening and increased the worries of FC Schalke 04. With the 2-0 (2-0) win against the Bundesliga relegated team, the Hanseatic League moved close to the direct promotion places in the table. Immanuel Pherai (22nd) and Laszlo Benes (35th) scored before the break for the efficient guests in their coach Tim Walter’s 100th HSV game. Schalke’s Thomas Ouwejan was very unlucky, hitting the crossbar once (33′) and the post once (74′).
Hamburg remains third in the table, but is only one point behind Holstein Kiel and two points less than city rivals St. Pauli. The hosts, however, failed to pull away from the danger zone and are now only three points ahead of the first relegation zone.