Fabian Klos scored a last-gasp equaliser for Arminia Bielefeld in their basement battle with FC St. Pauli, denying them what would have been a third win in a row.
After a goalless first half, Christopher Buchtmann put St. Pauli ahead soon after the break, and they looked set to escape the bottom three before Klos capitalised on chaos in the box from a corner to steal a share of the points.
The point took both sides up a place above Erzgebirge Aue, and all three are level with Karlsruher SC, St. Pauli’s next opponents, on 18 points at the bottom of the 2. Bundesliga table.
Battle of the bottom two
St. Pauli finally moved off the bottom of the league after back-to-back victories against Eintracht Braunschweig and Dynamo Dresden. Bielefeld were there instead coming into the match, level on points with die Freibeuter, after Erzgebirge Aue’s draw with Braunschweig on Friday.
Bielefeld had only won one of the last five, against 1860 Munich, whilst losing the other four. Following their 3-1 defeat to 1. FC Union Berlin they made three changes. Julian Börner, Florian Hartherz and Sören Brandy came in for Stephan Salger, Manuel Junglas and Christopher Nöthe.
St. Pauli made just the one, enforced, change from their win against Dresden. Buchtmann was recalled for Kyoung-Rok Choi, who missed out with a thigh problem. They were hoping for a repeat of their victory over Bielefeld in September, when they won 2-1 in Hamburg.
St. Pauli fail to capitalise on bright start
The hosts looked to start on the front foot, however St. Pauli had the ball in the net with the first clear chance. Aziz Bouhaddouz’s through ball found Buchtmann, and he slotted the ball past Wolfgang Hesl. However he had been in an offside position and the goal was correctly disallowed.
Bielefeld didn’t learn their lesson though, and the guests cut through their defence again soon after. This time Waldemar Sobota turned provider for Bouhaddouz, however the Moroccan’s shot was kept out by Hesl.
After that promising start though the game descended into a real scrap, with neither side quite able to put the other under pressure. Sobota did have the ball in the net again for St. Pauli, but once again the officials disallowed it for offside.
Buchtmann breaks the deadlock
If ever a game needed a goal, it was this one. And thanks to Buchtmann, it was St. Pauli who got it soon after half-time. Sobota set him up after an excellent run in from the left, with Buchtmann on the far side of the box placing it through the legs of a defender and off the foot of Hesl.
There were plenty more chances for them afterwards as well. Sobota was involved again in setting up Jeremy Dudziak, but he was forced out of play.
Cenk Sahin was then almost through but was deny the chance to move on goal by Brian Behrendt. And from a free-kick, Lasse Sobiech almost headed the ball into the path of Bouhaddouz but he couldn’t connect.
Klos equaliser leaves St. Pauli reeling
After that though Bielefeld finally began to pose a threat. A cross from Klos was promising but failed to find everyone, whilst Reinhold Yabo fired over and Tom Schütz had a shot saved by Philipp Heerwagen.
The pressure continued to build in the final stages and their best chance yet came with three minutes left. St. Pauli failed to clear a ball and Keanu Staude had the perfect chance to score, but Heerwagen got a vital hand to it. They then had big appeals for a penalty when Sören Gonther appeared to push Klos, but it wasn’t given.
They did equalise in stoppage time though. A corner fell to Sebastian Schuppan, with the attempt from his second touch was blocked, but Heerwagen couldn’t deal with the loose ball and there was Klos to stab home the equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage time.