FC St. Pauli

"I wouldn't object to a scrappy win for once," noted head coach Timo Schultz at the pre-match news conference with a nod to his side’s seven-game winless run. The Boys in Brown were on the verge of ending their barren spell at home against VfL Osnabrück last week, but a mixture of poor finishing and lack of resolve in the key challenges cost them not only a possible win but also even a point.

Talking to St. Pauli TV in the run-up, central defender Philipp Ziereis was adamant that the team had put the 1-0 defeat behind them. Ziereis, who captained the team for the first time last week, has yet to finish on the losing side against Eintracht Braunschweig. Indeed, the Lower Saxony outfit have proved popular opponents in recent years. In the 18 Bundesliga 2 meetings thus far, the Lions have managed just three victories, while the Boys in Brown have won eleven.

St. Pauli have done particularly well at the Eintracht Stadium, where they are unbeaten in four visits and retain fond memories, such as the double save made by Robin Himmelmann to defuse an Onel Hernandez penalty and then keep out his rebound effort, and the vital away win when bottom of the table under Ewald Lienen, who went on to lead the Boys in Brown to safety at Darmstadt in the closing stages of the 2014/15 season. There is precedent, then, for a victory at Braunschweig to end a negative trend and begin a turnaround. 

Daniel Meyer's team, who hardly stood a chance in the 4-0 defeat at Darmstadt last week, are also hoping to launch an upward trend. Eintracht raided Union Berlin twice in summer, signing a leader for the engine room in Felix Kroos and securing the return of Suleiman Abdullahi on loan, though the latter has been sidelined with a knee problem recently. Another player with a Köpenick past is skipper Martin Kobylanski, a hard-to-defend finisher who looks set to be available after recovering from an MCL injury.

"They're decent opposition who like us haven't picked up the points their efforts would have merited, so it's going to be a tough away game," said FCSP midfielder Rico Benatelli. Getting a result is all that counts in this fixture, and the Boys in Brown aim to bring their quality to the pitch to lift themselves out of the drop zone with a win. The line of approach mapped out by Philipp Ziereis is thus unambiguous. "We're going there to take all three points," he concluded.

Photo: Witters