FC St. Pauli

Head coach Fabian Hürzeler made four changes to the side that beat FC Lugano at the winter training camp. Nikola Vasilj replaced Sascha Burchert in goal having missed the Benidorm friendly due to a family bereavement. New centre-back Karol Mets made his first appearance in the brown-and-white jersey, lining up alongside Eric Smith and Adam Dźwigała in a back three. The two captains, Leart Paqarada and Jackson Irvine, the latter donning the rainbow armband, also came into the side for Lars Ritzka and Afeez Aremu. Johannes Eggestein did make the trip to the Lower Rhine due to illness.

Tactically, as in the previous two warm-up matches under Hürzeler, the two full-backs were asked to press high and get involved with the ball up front. The team was also set up to create chances down the middle through two ball-playing holding midfielders in Marcel Hartel and Jackson Irvine and two number tens in Lukas Daschner and Connor Metcalfe. The effectiveness of this strategy in the opening stages was demonstrated in the fifth minute when Metcalfe sent the advancing Paqarada on his way with a perfectly weighted outside of the foot pass. After two feints in the opposition box, the full-back unleashed a right-foot drive but failed to trouble Yann Sommer in the Gladbach goal.

The next chance also fell to the Boys in Brown when a free-kick found David Otto at the back stick. His first-time effort came down on top of the goal. FCSP continued to break into the final third with decent outballs to the full-backs, in particular Leart Paqarada. The Bundesliga outfit, for their part, struggled to fashion any opportunities during this phase of the game, largely due to the Hürzeler XI shifting intelligently as a unit and the two the holding midfielders keeping things tight in the centre and pressing the man on the ball early.

With 20 minutes gone, the 500 or so travelling supporters were making to celebrate when Lukas Daschner was picked out with a perfect ball to the edge of the box and then pulled the trigger after taking a couple of touches – his attempt had Sommer going the wrong way, but the Gladbach custodian stuck out to foot to keep it at nil-nil. There was nothing he could do four minutes later, however, when Leart Paqarada won the ball in fine style on the left and whipped a low ball into the goal area, where David Otto registered with a textbook backheel into the far corner.

Gladbach enjoyed longer spells of possession in the ensuing period, yet the Boys in Brown repeatedly won the key challenges with smart positional play and bite in the tackle, condemning the home side to continue their wait for their first big chance. A good example of this came in the 33^rd minute when Daniel Farke’s side played their way into space in the FCSP box for the first time, only for Eric Smith to defuse the danger with a fantastic sliding tackle on World Cup runner-up Marcus Thuram. At the other end, the Hürzeler XI carved out another decent chance on 37 when a corner was cut back to Paqarada, who was loitering with intent outside the box. His first-time volley forced Sommer into a lightning-fast reaction save to deny the visitors a second goal.

The Boys in Brown celebrate David Otto’s opener.

Hürzeler made two like-for-like changes for the second half, introducing Afeez Aremu and Jakov Medić for Marcel Hartel and Karol Mets. The first big chance fell to the home side three minutes in, however, when Plea hit the post from a narrow angle. That marked the beginning of an intensive spell of pressure in which Daniel Farke’s team pressed high and early and repeatedly combined their way into the FCSP box. Nevertheless, the Boys in Brown managed to calm things down again and regain their defensive solidity. Opportunities began to open up in transition, but the passes in behind lacked the necessary precision to initiate any chances. The ball eventually ended up in the back of the FCSP net following another batch of substitutions, but Manu Koné was adjudged to be offside in mopping up and the goal was chalked off.

Borussia continued to dictate the proceedings in the second period, however. Vasilj had to stretch to keep out a Plea drive from just outside the box that looked destined for the corner. The Boys in Brown hit back a couple of minutes later, Paqarada, Maurides and Daschner playing their way into the Gladbach box – but the latter’s attempt flew wide of the right-hand upright.

The game descended into a scrappy affair after a third block of substitutions by both teams, with chances at a premium. Gladbach threatened on a couple of occasions in the closing stages when Lars Ritzka risked everything in nicking the ball off Patrick Herrmann with a sliding tackle in the box and Vasilj had to produce a decent reflex save to deny Nathan Ngoumou on the counterattack. Nothing else materialised, though, and the Boys in Brown protected their narrow advantage to the end to secure their second victory in three warm-up games.

Borussia Mönchengladbach 

Sommer (C) - Scally (Lainer 61’), Elvedi (Jantschke 76’), Itakura (Friedrich 76’), Bensebaini (Netz 76’) - Koné (Neuhaus 71’), Weigl (Stindl 61’) - Hofmann (Herrmann 76’), Kramer (Reitz 83’), Plea (Wolf 71’) - Thuram (Ngoumou 71’)

Head coach: Daniel Farke

FC St. Pauli

Vasilj - Dźwigała (Wieckhoff 76’), Smith (Beifus 61’), Mets (Medić 46’) - Saliakas (Boukhalfa 76’), Irvine (C) (Fazliji 61’), Hartel (Aremu 46’), Paqarada (Ritzka 76’) - Metcalfe (Saad 76’), Otto (Maurides 61’), Daschner (Matanović 76’)

Head coach: Fabian Hürzeler

Goals: 0-1 Otto (24’)

Yellow cards: Hartel

Referee: Dr Robin Braun

Attendance: 5,572

Photos: FC St. Pauli