FC St. Pauli

After a host of high-intensity sessions in recent days, the Benidorm training camp concluded with a friendly against VfL Osnabrück, for which head coach Fabian Hürzeler fielded almost exactly the same team that started the 1-1 draw in the league at Osnabrück in early December. The sole change saw new recruit Aljoscha Kemlein come in for captain Jackson Irvine, who is with Australia at the Asian Cup in Qatar along with Connor Metcalfe.

The Boys in Brown dominated the proceedings from the off, creating several early chances against their league rivals. Eric Smith smacked a 20-metre free-kick just over in the third minute, while Marcel Hartel hit the crossbar from Oladapo Afolayan's assist soon after. Moments later, an opposition defender managed to get in the way of a Smith volley. Osnabrück were largely content to sit back and wait for a chance to break, but were unable to mount any real threat whenever they did get through. On 23 minutes, however, they took the lead when Dave Gnaase capitalised on a wayward ball out from Nikola Vasilj to slot into the unguarded goal from 25 metres. Aljoscha Kemlein then tried his luck from outside the box on 31, only to be denied by a smart save from Philipp Kühn, and four minutes later Christian Conteh doubled Osnabrück's lead. The ex-St. Pauli man latched onto to a long upfield ball and broke clear before leaving Vasilj no chance with a shot into the bottom right corner.

After a short break, Afolayan had a go from 14 metres, but Kühn gathered with aplomb. The Hürzeler XI continued to hog the possession but lacked a cutting edge in the final third. A Hartel corner produced the next opportunity. It was met by Kemlein, but Kühn got down quickly to prevent the header from finding the bottom left corner. The Osnabruck custodian was in the action again soon after, this time keeping out an Afolayan volley from the edge of the box. Though the Boys in Brown had more chances and more of the possession, it remained 2-0 simply because Osnabrück made much better use of their opportunities. The biggest chance in this phase went begging, however, after Conteh had been brought down by Philipp Treu in the box. Conteh took the penalty himself, but Vasilj dived low to his right to tip the ball round the post. Hürzeler made his first substitution soon after, introducing Under-23 midfielder Gwangin Lee for Afolayan. Yet despite continuing to dominate towards the end of the half, the Boys in Brown went in two goals down at the break.

Hürzeler rang the changes for the second 75 minutes, fielding a completely different side that saw Under-17 World Cup winner Eric da Silva Moreira make his first appearance in the senior side. The right-back had his first sight of goal from a corner in the 83^rd minute, but his distance effort was blocked. At the other end, Kwasi Okyere Wriedt narrowly failed to make contact with a ball in from Noel Niemann following a counterattack. Osnabrück took a more adventurous approach after the interval and were now making an open game of it. But then the Boys in Brown pulled one back. Etienne Amenyido flicked on a Danel Sinani corner at the near post, leaving Adam Dźwigała the simple task of netting from close range. Da Silva Moreira then had an opportunity to level the scores on 104 minutes, but he failed to make a proper contact and ended up screwing his shot off target from 15 metres.

The two sides largely cancelled each out in the final segment, though the Boys in Brown almost conceded a third goal despite edging the possession again when Ismail Badjie pounced on a loose ball just outside the box and let fly from 13 metres. Sascha Burchert was alert to the danger, however, and made the save. At the other end, Carlo Boukhalfa missed an opportunity to restore parity following a St. Pauli foray down the left when Osnabrück were unable to clear their lines and the midfielder got a shot off unmarked from just inside the box. His effort was too centrally placed, however, and Lennart Grill made the save. At the other end, Niemann went one better, bursting into the box unchallenged from the left and finding the bottom left corner of the goal with a low drive from 12 metres to make it 3-1. Andreas Albers had come on midway through the second half and he had two chances in the closing stages. His first effort from 18 metres was held by Grill and the second, a header from a corner, flew just past the right-hand post. And so it ended 3-1 to Osnabrück.

"We dictated the play in both halves and had our chances, but we lacked the cutting edge needed to score," said Fabian Hürzeler after the game. "Osnabrück kept things very tight in the final third and defended well. We conceded far too easily. We made simple mistakes in our build-up play, mistakes we cannot afford to make. Osnabrück punished us in clinical fashion. We need to analyse the game, learn our lessons and try to do better in a week's time. It'll be similar against Kaiserslautern; they'll try to catch us in on the break. We know that and need to come up with answers." Asked about Aljoscha Kemlein's debut, Hürzeler expressed his satisfaction: "He was very assured on the ball, had some good interventions going forward and had a few attempts on goal. He did a decent job."

VfL Osnabrück

To the 75^th minute: Kühn - Kleinhansl, Gymafi, Makridis, Kunze, Diakhite, Conteh, Kehl, Androutsos, Lobinger, Gnaase

From the 76^th minute: Grill - Gyamfi (Badjie 88'), Ajdini, Thalhammer, Niemann, Tesche (Wiethaup 125'), Engelhardt, Wriedt, Wiemann, Rorig, Bähr

Head coach: Uwe Koschinat

FC St. Pauli

To the 75^th minute: Vasilj - Wahl, Smith, Mets - Saliakas, Kemlein, Hartel, Treu - Afolayan (Lee 63'), Eggestein, Saad

From the 76^th minute: Burchert - Dźwigała, Nemeth (Dahaba 140'), Scheller - da Silva Moreira (Günther 113'), Boukhalfa, Marie, Ritzka - Sinani, Maurides (Albers 113'), Amenyido (Lee 140')

Head coach: Fabian Hürzeler

Goals: 1-0 Gnaase (23'), 2-0 Conteh (35'), 2-1 Dźwigała (94'), 3-1 Niemann (133')

Incident of note: Vasilj penalty save from Conteh (60')

Yellow cards: Diakhite – Treu, Afolayan

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters