FC St. Pauli

Head coach Alexander Blessin made three changes from the narrow 1-0 defeat against VfB Stuttgart last time out. Ben Voll stood in between the posts for the suspended Nikola Vasilj, Lars Ritzka slotted into the position normally occupied by Siebe Van der Heyden, and Oladapo Afolayan got the nod over Noah Weißhaupt, who began on the bench. For Eintracht Frankfurt, Dino Toppmöller named an unchanged side after the 1-1 draw at FSV Mainz.

With Heidenheim winning 3-0 at Union Berlin a day earlier, the Boys in Brown went into the game intent on getting a result. One point would be a giant step towards safety, three would guarantee their Bundesliga status for another year. A win for Eintracht, on the other hand, would see them qualify for the Champions League.

In ideal conditions for football and an electric atmosphere, Eintracht made a perfect start to the game, taking the lead through Rasmus Kristensen after just 24 seconds. The Blessin XI failed to make a challenge from the kick-off, leaving Voll powerless to prevent the opener. The response was not long in coming, however. Following a long ball forward, Danel Sinani overhit a square ball for Morgan Guilavogui slightly, but the striker cut it back for Manolis Saliakas to dink a curler over Kevin Trapp and into the far corner from the right-hand channel. A wonderful strike!

The home side looked to hit back straightaway after an undercooked clearance by Voll, but the keeper recovered to keep Hugo Larsson’s 18-metre effort out of the bottom left corner. Then, with 14 minutes on the clock, Jean-Mattéo Bahoya found Robin Koch with a cross, but Voll clawed the header out of the bottom right corner. The corner came to nothing, and Voll showed some super quick thinking to hit an inch-perfect low ball straight into the part of Guilavogui, who skipped past Frankfurt’s last man, Hugo Larsson, to bear down on Trapp. Guilavogui’s initial effort was blocked by Bahoya, but his rebound effort found the net from a tight angle to make it 2-1.

It remained an entertaining encounter in which Frankfurt, for all their possession, rarely found a gap in the St. Pauli rearguard. The one time they did, Hugo Ekitiké dribbled his way across the danger area before pulling the trigger from the edge of the box – the ball just over the crossbar. Blessin’s charges remained solid at the back throughout the first half and launched a series of quick-fire raids whenever the opportunity presented itself, as on the half-hour, when the final ball from Guilavogui to Sinani in the middle was slightly overhit. At the other end, Bahoya fired just over from 20 metres. That was the last of the action, and the Boys in Brown went in at the break 45 minutes from safety.

Morgan Guilavogui makes it 2-1 from a tight angle on the quarter-hour.

The Blessin XI came back out unchanged, while Michy Batshuayi replaced Jean-Mattéo Bahoya for the home side. Eintracht needed to exert more pressure now to avoid a final-day decider against SC Freiburg in the battle for a Champions League berth, but they were up against an FCSP side determined to protect their lead and thus secure their Bundesliga status.

Four minutes in, Guilavogui was almost through on goal, but Smith’s pass lacked timing, allowing Trapp came out of his goal to collect. Frankfurt’s struggle to find a gap in an alert brown-and-white defence continued, and when Ekitiké was afforded too much space outside the box, he dragged his effort well off target. Philipp Treu picked up a knock in the run-up and was replaced by Adam Dźwigała. Despite being kept busy in their own half, Blessin’s side repeatedly pushed forward, but they were unable to pose a threat. Eintracht then tried their luck down the right and Ansgar Knauff thumped a cross into the middle, where substitute Can Uzun headed well wide of the target. Soon after, Voll gathered an Ekitiké header with aplomb.

The Boys in Brown defended their lead with intensity and passion but were punished after losing possession on the halfway line with 71 minutes gone. Eintracht got the ball into the box quickly and new man Fares Chaïbi picked out fellow substitute Batshuayi, who found the bottom right corner from 14 metres.

With the game entering the final quarter of an hour, Blessin introduced Noah Weißhaupt for Oladapo Afolayan and then, seven minutes later, Connor Metcalfe and Robert Wagner for Lars Ritzka and Morgan Guilavogui. They could only look on as Kristensen met a long ball in the volley at the corner of the goal area and steered it a whisker past the far post. The sense of relief in the FCSP camp was tangible. Two minutes later, Batshuayi had the ball in the net a second time, but on this occasion it was ruled out for a handball by the Belgian in the run-up.

Eintracht stepped up the pressure, but the Boys in Brown fought with everything they had to take the all-important point back to Hamburg with them. There was time for another foray into the Eintracht half and when Carlo Boukhalfa teed up Weißhaupt on the left, his low angled drive fizzed narrowly wide of the far post. At the other end, Batshuayi dinked one over the top and then it was all over.

Eintracht Frankfurt

Trapp - Tuta (Uzun 61’), Koch, Theate - Kristensen, Skhiri (Chaïbi 69’), Larsson, Brown - Knauff (Collins 79’), Bahoya (Batshuayi 46’) - Ekitiké

Head coach: Dino Toppmöller

FC St. Pauli

Voll - Nemeth, Wahl, Ritzka (Wagner 83’) - Saliakas, Boukhalfa, Smith, Treu (Dźwigała 58’) - Sinani - Guilavogui (Metcalfe 83’), Afolayan (Weißhaupt 76’)

Head coach: Alexander Blessin

Goals: 1-0 Kristensen (1’), 1-1 Saliakas (4’), 1-2 Guilavogui (15’), 2-2 Batshuayi (71’)

Yellow cards: Kristensen – Smith, Voll

Referee: Christian Dingert (Lebecksmühle)

Attendance: 58,000 (sold out)

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters