NEVER CHANGE A WINNING MATCHDAY!
Saturday, 05. May 2018, 14:28 Uhr
FC St. Pauli play host to Arminia Bielefeld in the penultimate game of the season at the Millerntor on Sunday (kick-off: 1530 CET). After the crucial home defeat of Greuther Fürth last time out, the Boys in Brown are looking for a repeat against the East Westphalians to take another step towards safety. That requires not only a big performance on the pitch, but also the exact same build-up as last week. Superstition demands it.
"We put in an excellent performance today and deserved to win," said a satisfied Markus Kauczinski after the 3-0 victory over Fürth last Saturday. A convincing display from his players saw them return to winning ways thanks to goals from Dimitrios Diamantakos, Johannes Flum and Richard Neudecker. Arminia also secured three points last week, producing a spectacular recovery from 2-0 down to beat FC Kaiserslautern 3-2 in stoppage time and condemn the Red Devils to the drop. With two games left to play, Jeff Saibene's side now sit fourth in the table, five points behind the promotion play-off spot.
For Boys in Brown, in contrast, Sunday is all about collecting more points in the fight to stave off relegation. Markus Kauczinski's team occupy 13th place in the table on 40 points, two ahead of Fürth in 16th. As in the previous week, all this week's training sessions were held behind closed doors to allow the players to concentrate solely on tomorrow's crunch clash. "For us it was about total focus on our preparations again," said Kauczinski at yesterday's press conference.
In addition to the usual long-term absentees, captain Bernd Nehrig will miss out against Arminia due to injury. Cenk Sahin and Sami Allagui are still suspended, and Philipp Ziereis, Johannes Flum and Jan-Philipp Kalla are doubtful. Bielefeld will be without Brian Behrendt (MCL tear), Nils Quaschner (rehab after knee surgery) and captain Julian Börner (calf strain).
Making their final home appearance at the Millerntor on Sunday are Lasse Sobiech, Mats Møller Dæhli, Joël Keller and Thibaud Verlinden, who are all leaving the club in summer. The quartet have made a combined total of 175 competitive appearances for the first team and will be given an official send-off on the pitch at 1445 CET, so please enter the ground a little earlier than usual to bid farewell to the lads.
To make sure we have all the luck on our side in the final home game of the season, we recommend you do everything the same as last Saturday against Fürth. Put the same sock on first, wear your lucky underpants again and open your pre-match beer using the same bottle opener. True to the motto: "never change a winning matchday!"
Photo: Witters
