FC St. Pauli

Head coach Timo Schultz made five changes to the team that lost 2-1 at Eintracht Braunschweig last time out. Svend Brodersen came in for Robin Himmelmann to make his first appearance between the posts since April 2019, while Daniel Buballa, Kevin Lankford, Maximilian Dittgen and Simon Makienok made way for Leart Paqarada, Finn Ole Becker, Boris Tashchy and Igor Matanovic. After two cameo appearances against Osnabrück and Braunschweig, it was the 17-year-old striker’s first start in the second division.

St. Pauli quickly fashioned the first chance of the game, Daniel-Kofi Kyereh heading a deep Rico Benatelli corner back across goal for Philipp Ziereis to direct a diving header a couple of metres over the bar. The Boys in Brown pressed the ball early, to such effect that old boy Sören Gonther and his Aue teammates were unable to launch any controlled build-up play. Yet with the visitors adopting a similar tactic, both sides struggled to break into the final third in the opening period.

With ten minutes gone, however, Aue seized on a wayward pass by Finn Ole Becker on the halfway line and took advantage in clinical fashion. Jan Hochscheidt knocked the ball wide left to Florian Krüger, who cut it back to Pascal Testroet between the edge of the box and the penalty spot, and he left Svend Brodersen no chance with a pinpoint effort into the bottom-right corner.

The Boys in Brown had to make an enforced change five minutes later when Philipp Ziereis picked up an injury and was replaced by Daniel Buballa. Against a solid Aue rearguard, Schultz’s side had problems finding a way through, and if they did find a gap, the final ball failed to reach a teammate, as when Tashchy and Matanovic were unable to connect with a low ball in from Sebastian Ohlsson on 20 minutes. At the other end, another misplaced pass allowed Testroet to go for goal again. This time, James Lawrence was able to get in the way of the shot. Brodersen then had little trouble gathering a long-range effort from Calogero Rizzuto. The Boys in Brown looked to hit back straightaway with a quick counter, but Becker could have made more of the chance that was blocked.

The quarter-of-hour before the break belonged to the Boys in Brown. Matanovic beat Gonther to a Leart Paqarada cross, but his header flew over the top. A skewed clearance from Florian Ballas then dropped for Tashchy on the right-hand side of the box. The striker went past Ballas but was unable to beat Martin Männel with a low drive. Two minutes later, Becker drove into the area and steered a left-foot shot just wide of the far post. Tashchy then aimed a lob just wide of the right-hand upright, ensuring the Boys in Brown went in a goal down at half-time against an Aue side who had simply proved more effective in front of goal.

Svend Brodersen barked out instructions to his teammates throughout the first half but was powerless when Aue took the lead.

The two teams emerged unchanged for the second period. St. Pauli again hit the ground running, Kyereh narrowly failing to latch on to an Ohlsson cross two minutes in. Aue remained a threat, however. Hochscheidt directed a shot on the turn towards the bottom-right corner from 15 metres, but Brodersen was able to get down quickly to make the save. The game ebbed and flowed, and at the other end Kyereh was denied by Männel. His shot from the edge of the box lacked both power and accuracy. Testroet then tried his luck with a horizontal bicycle kick, but the ball flew well off target.

A great chance to level the scores followed in the 59^th minute when Becker threaded a brilliant ball through to Matanovic, whose angled shot from the inside-right channel produced a fine save from Männel. The Aue keeper was in the action again a couple of minutes later, clinging on to Tashchy’s goalbound header from a Rodrigo Zalazar cross. The home side continued to press and when Aue failed to get the ball away from a corner, Buballa tried his luck with an overhead kick, only to see his effort clear the crossbar.

Schultz responded with a second substitution on 63 minutes, Lukas Daschner coming on for Tashchy. The Boys in Brown could not be faulted for effort and commitment, far from it, but lacked punch in front of goal. Faced with mounting pressure from a dominant home side, Aue found themselves pegged back in their own half. After Zalazar had won possession in midfield, Becker slipped another superb pass through to Matanovic, who knocked the ball past Männel, only to see Gonther get back to tidy up the danger. And four minutes later the Boys in Brown must have thought they had scored when Kyereh went for goal from just outside the box. The ball smacked back off the left-hand upright, however, and it seemed as if they would never score.

With the game entering the final quarter-of-an-hour, Aue coach Dirk Schuster withdrew goalscorer Testroet and bolstered his shaky defence with the introduction of the much more defensively-minded Louis Samson. But out of the blue, Aue doubled their lead on 79 through Krüger, who collected a pass from Dimitrij Nazarov and chipped the ball over Brodersen into the net. Schultz responded by throwing on fresh legs in the shape of Marvin Knoll, Maximilian Dittgen and Simon Makienok for Paqarada, Zalazar and Kyereh. And within moments of coming on, all three substitutes combined to pull a goal back. Knoll delivered a corner into the middle, Makienok flicked it on and Dittgen converted at the back post.

The Boys in Brown threw everyone forward in search of an equaliser and got their reward two minutes before the end of regulation time when Knoll dispatched a free-kick into the danger area for Lawrence to head against the post. The rebound fell at the feet of Makienok, who stuck a low shot past Männel to make it 2-2! Now rampant, the Boys in Brown went in search of a winner but were unable to find it. With ten minutes to go, the game had looked out of reach, but thanks to their morale and some effective substitutions by Schultz to usher in the comeback, they were able to salvage a point.

FC St. Pauli

Brodersen - Ohlsson, Ziereis (Buballa 15’), Lawrence, Paqarada (Knoll 80’) - Benatelli, Becker, Zalazar (Dittgen 80’) - Kyereh (Makienok 80’) - Matanovic, Tashchy (Daschner 63’)

Head coach: Timo Schultz

FC Erzgebirge Aue

Männel - Strauß, Gonther, Ballas, Rizzuto - Riese, Zolinski (Baumgart 60’), Fandrich, Hochscheidt (Nazarov 68’) - Krüger, Testroet (Samson 74’)

Head coach: Dirk Schuster

Goals: 0-1 Testroet (10’), 0-2 Krüger (78’), 1-2 Dittgen (81’), 2-2 Makienok (88’)

Yellow cards: Buballa, Lawrence, Tashchy, Knoll – Riese

Referee: Koslowski (Berlin)

Attendance: 0

Photos: Witters