FC St. Pauli

As announced, head coach Fabian Hürzeler’s lineup for the friendly against Werder Bremen was largely made up of players who have seen little or no action recently. In Hauke Wahl, Lars Ritzka, Marcel Hartel and Oladapo Afolayan, just four players who started in the 5-1 defeat of Nürnberg last week began again today. Simon Zoller made his debut appearance in an FCSP shirt, while Etienne Amenyido made his first start since November and Maurides was named in the squad for the first time since March after completing his recovery from a knee injury.

Both teams hit the ground running but it was Werder who took the lead with their first attack on three minutes. A Marvin Ducksch corner was flicked on by two teammates to the unmarked Justin Njinmah at the back post, and he left keeper Sascha Burchert no chance with a first-time volley into the top right corner. After Dawid Kownacki and Marcel Hartel had both squandered opportunities, the Boys in Brown were awarded a penalty when Senne Lynen fouled Hartel in the box. Hartel took it himself, converting with aplomb into the bottom right corner. Shortly after that, Philipp Treu met a half-cleared corner first time, but aimed wide left from 20 metres.

It remained a high-intensity, evenly matched contest in which both teams looked to play football, without ever really penetrating the opposition penalty box. But on 24 Leonardo Bittencourt almost took advantage when the Boys in Brown lost possession near their own penalty box, forcing a fine save from Burchert with a shot from 14 metres. The experienced keeper then denied Njinmah twice within 120 seconds. The Hürzeler XI soon forced several corners, one of which resulted in Lars Ritzka trying his luck from range, only for Michael Zetterer to make a comfortable save. At the other end, the home side put together a string passes to play their way into the box, but the shot from Jens Stage took a decisive deflection off Hauke Wahl. And just before the break, Mitchell Weiser skewed a shot well wide following a corner by former St. Pauli man Marvin Ducksch.

Werder fielded an unchanged side for the second half, while Fabian Hürzeler elected to make six changes, Hauke Wahl, Lars Ritzka, Marcel Hartel, Etienne Amenyido, Oladapo Afolayan and debutant Simon Zoller making way for Luca Günther, Elias Saad, Johannes Eggestein, Andreas Albers and Under-23 players Tjark Scheller and Max Marie. And what a second half it was. Ducksch had the first sight of goal for Werder three minutes in but dragged his effort well off target. At the other end, Saad was to prove more accurate. His pinpoint low drive from the left channel found the bottom right corner to give his side a 2-1 lead.

The home side almost hit back immediately. Burchert produced another fine save to deny Njinmah, but there was nothing he could do to prevent Stage levelling with a bouncing header from a Ducksch corner on 54. And it didn’t stay that way for long, Kownacki restoring his side’s advantage from the spot after a foul by David Nemeth on Felix Agu in the box. Ten minutes later, Maurides made his return to action after a seven-month injury layoff and looked on as Burchert stopped Werder from adding a fourth with further stops against Agu und Bittencourt.

Soon after, the scores were level again when Saad took advantage of some space in the Bremen box to score from the left channel again, this time finding the bottom left corner. Saad then turned provider for Eggestein, who was denied by Zetterer from the edge of the box, and the Bremen keeper produced another fine save to prevent Saad from firing the Boys in Brown back in front following a clever pass from Maurides. The Hürzeler XI had the edge in the closing stages and Marie hit a long-range effort over the top two minutes before the end. The last opportunity of the game was reserved for Maurides, whose free-kick from around 25 metres fizzed just past the top right corner, ensuring it ended all square at 3-3.

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Head coach Fabian Hürzeler after the game: “Everyone did well today. The lads who haven’t played for a while, in particular, had an opportunity to show how good they actually are. We were very dominant and had control of the ball, while Werder sat back and waited for us to make a mistake. We made too many simple mistakes, especially early on, but the longer the game went on, the more assured we became. I was satisfied with our attacking display because we had lots of good approach work, attempts on goal and goalscoring opportunities. Looking at the defence, you have to say that three goals against from set pieces is too many. We have to analyse that and put a stop to it. Keeping a clean sheet will always be the basis. We haven’t done that in recent matches, and it was our objective again today. We need to work on it because conceding three was too much.”

SV Werder Bremen

Zetterer - Jung (Asante 62’), Lynen, Röcker - Agu (Schwarz 84’), Bittencourt, Stage (Kasper 84’), Weiser (Polat 62’) - Kownacki, Ducksch (Imasuen 62’), Njinmah

Head coach: Ole Werner

FC St. Pauli

Burchert - Dźwigała, Wahl (Scheller 46’), Nemeth (Maurides 62’) - Treu, Hartel (Marie 46’), Boukhalfa (Schmitz 84’), Ritzka (Günther 46’) - Afolayan (Eggestein 46’), Zoller (Albers 46’), Amenyido (Saad 46’)

Head coach: Fabian Hürzeler

Goals: 1-0 Njinmah (3’), 1-1 Hartel (pen. 12’), 1-2 Saad (50’), 2-2 Stage (54’), 3-2 Kownacki (pen. 58’), 3-3 Saad (65’)

Yellow cards: Bittencourt

Referee: Christoph Kluge (Bremen)

Photos: FC St. Pauli / Witters