FC St. Pauli

Head coach Olaf Janßen named an unchanged side for the trip to Lower Saxony, but there were several changes on the bench. Keeper Svend Brodersen featured in the squad for the first time in place of the ailing Philipp Heerwagen (foot), while Christopher Buchtmann and Aziz Bouhaddouz returned from injury. They were joined by new director of sport Uwe Stöver, who started work today.

Braunschweig boss Torsten Lieberknecht, on the other hand, had to make several enforced changes to his starting lineup. In Mirko Boland, Salim Khelifi and Maximilian Sauer, three players were serving bans after being sent off in last week's defeat at Regensburg, while striker Christoffer Nyman was ruled out by injury. Niko Kijewski, Louis Samson, Onel Hernandez and Suleiman Abdullahi all came into the side.

The new-look home side almost took the lead with just two minutes gone when Domi Kumbela forced a magnificent reflex save from Robin Himmelmann with a close-range effort following a throw-in. Himmelmann was alert to the danger once again in the 10^th minute to deny Abdullahi. That came just after Sami Allagui had threatened for the first time with a header on goal.

In a frantic opening the home side continued to fashion the better chances. And with 12 minutes gone Lasse Sobiech brought down Ken Reichel in the box, leaving referee Manuel Gräfe with no choice but to point to the spot. Hernandez stepped up to take the penalty but Himmelmann again showed all his quality, not only by saving the initial spot-kick but also by producing a sensational stop to keep out the rebound.

The pattern remained much the same after that, however. Braunschweig continued to take the game to the Boys in Brown, who struggled to mount any kind of threat. Jan Hochscheidt and Steffen Nkansah, on for the injured Reichel, had further chances to open the scoring for the home side, the former with a deflected shot after 25 minutes and the latter with a header on 32.

Braunschweig suffered a further setback in the 38^th minute when Hochscheidt had to go off with an injury but it remained pretty much one-way traffic. The Lions kept pushing forward and the Boys in Brown had to work extremely hard to keep it at 0-0. In the end they had Himmelmann and a large slice of luck to thank for it still being goalless at the half-time.

The defining moment of the first half: Robin Himmelmann denies penalty-taker Hernandez again on the rebound.

Janßen responded to the problems in his team's build-up play by introducing Johannes Flum for Jeremy Dudziak and the action continued at a frenetic pace after the restart. Three minutes in, Allagui took the ball round keeper Jasmin Fejzic and it was only the tightness of the angle that stopped him from scoring. Almost immediately, Abdullahi popped up in front of Himmelmann, but Neudecker blocked his effort with a last-ditch sliding challenge. Undaunted by that chance, the Boys in Brown now had much more structure in their play and stepped up the pressure going forward, which resulted in half-chances for Flum on 57 and Daniel Buballa a minute later. Braunschweig meanwhile were beginning to feel the effects of their first-half exertions and no longer posed the same threat. A long throw by Kijewski did cause some momentary confusion in the box in the 63^rd minute, but Abdullahi was unable to latch onto it and that was about it.

Neudecker ended his day's work on 66, allowing Buchtmann to celebrate his return to first-team action. The midfielder had only been on the park for ten minutes when he gave himself the best possible present with a moment of brilliance following a one-two with Cenk Sahin. Buchtmann bore down on Fejzic and glanced across to the middle before dinking a delightful shot over the keeper to make it 1-0. That meant the home side had to take more risks and the Boys in Brown capitalised just four minutes later when Buchtmann turned provider by setting up Sahin, who sidestepped Gustav Valsvik before steering a shot past Fejzic.

Janßen's side were in full control now and never looked like surrendering their advantage in the closing stages. Abdullahi forced Himmelmann into one last save on 87 before the referee blew for full-time to make it four wins out of five away from home for the Boys in Brown.

Eintracht Braunschweig

Fejzic – Baffo (Tietz 78'), Valsvik, Reichel (Nkansah 23') – Moll, Samson – Hochscheidt (Becker 38'), Kijewski - Hernandez, Abdullahi, Kumbela

Head coach: Torsten Lieberknecht

FC St. Pauli

Himmelmann – Zander, Sobiech, Avevor, Buballa – Nehrig, Neudecker (Buchtmann 66') – Sobota, Sahin, Dudziak (Flum 46') – Allagui (Bouhaddouz 77')

Head coach: Olaf Janßen

Goals: 0-1 Buchtmann (76'), 0-2 Sahin (80')

Yellow cards: -

Incidents of note: Himmelmann denies Hernandez from the penalty spot (12')

Referee: Manuel Gräfe

Attendance: 22,695

Photos: Witters