FC St. Pauli celebrated a 3-0 victory over 1. FC Heidenheim, and gathered three important points. An own-goal from former St. Pauli player John Verhoek opened the scoring in the second half, following by goals from Mats Møller-Dæhli and Aziz Bouhaddouz.
Team News
St. Pauli head-coach Ewald Lienen kept faith in his eleven from last week's 3-1 victory at Fortuna Düsseldorf. However, a Philipp Ziereis injury made Lienen change on one position, fielding Marc Hornschuh instead.
Heidenheim coach Frank Schmidt changed two things, following their 2-2 draw versus Arminia Bielefeld; Tim Kleindienst came back after his suspension, and Martin Rasner has been given the chance to start, replacing Sebastian Griesbeck (suspended) and Matthias Wittek.
Cautious start by both teams
It began to rain in Hamburg as Referee Schröder gave the go-ahead for the first half. Both teams were very careful with what they were doing, and the spectators got to see a very tactical beginning in the Millerntor-Stadion. As cautious as they were, there was barely any opportunities on both sides that could be considered a shot on target. Eventually after 18 minutes, St. Pauli picked up some pace as Jeremy Dudziak made his away along the left wing, sticking the ball through to Christopher Buchtmann, whose effort found the side-netting.
The Kiez-Kicker kept trying to find their way through the incredibly well-defending visitors, though a number of attempts were either blocked or cleared for a corner. 36 minutes inside, Bernd Nehrig tried to make it from a distance, though his shot was then saved by keeper Kevin Müller. Heidenheim, on the other side, did not cause any trouble in the hosts' box. Frank Schmidt definitely hoped for more in the second half.
Verhoek unlucky, Møller-Dæhli doubles lead
The second half began perfectly for the hosts. Just seven minutes after kick-off, former Kiez-Kicker John Verhoek deflected a free-kick from Waldemar Sobota and struck into his own goal, giving St. Pauli the lead. Three minutes later, the bad luck remained inside the visitors box. Heidenheim Keeper Kevin Müller played the ball directly to Mats Møller-Dæhli instead of clearing the situation. The 22 year old Norwegian found the back of an empty net, doubling the lead.
St. Paulis' power-play took over the whole match, as the visitors could not recover from the shock. The young Møller-Dæhli had a great game, and continued to impress. The midfielder found Buchtmann on the left wing, who crossed superbly into the box and found Aziz Bouhaddouz. The Moroccan easily tapped in to make it 3-0 for the Rebells in the 63rd minute.
With ten minutes left, Heidenheim was down to ten man as Marcel Titsch-Rivero saw his second yellow, which made it even harder for the visitors to challenge the strong Kiez-Kickers. Nevertheless, the hosts could hold the 3-0 for the last remaining minutes and sealed a perfect victory over harmless Heidenheim.