FC St. Pauli and Erzgebirge Aue shared the points in their Friday night 2. Bundesliga meeting.

Jeremy Dudziak scored just his second goal for the hosts in the first half, however a header from Dennis Kempe – his first goal for Aue – snatched a point for the Violas. The point does at least take Olaf Janßen’s side up to fifth before the rest of the weekend games.

Dudziak fires host to life

St. Pauli were without eight senior players, with a ninth in Clemens Schoppenhauer out of the squad entirely, but they only made one unenforced change from Monday’s draw with SV Sandhausen, would-be scorer Dudziak replacing Waldemar Sobota. Aue were without Dimitrij Nazarov after his red card in the win against SSV Jahn Regensburg, whilst Malcolm Cacutalua also made way, with Fabian Kalig and Sören Bertram coming in.

St. Pauli started the game slowly, allowing Aue the chance to take control. A quick attacking flurry presented their best hope of taking an early lead – Bertram was beaten to the ball by Robin Himmelmann after a cross, but when the ball was played back in by Christian Tiffert, Himmelmann had his work cut out with Pascal Köpke, but the Aue striker was unable to get a shot away.

After the first 20 minutes St. Pauli picked up the odd chance, with Sami Allagui and Dudziak having shots saved by Martin Männel. They then took the lead, with Johannes Flum and Luca Zander playing the ball to Dudizak, who smashed it into the roof of the net, just his second goal for the club.

The momentum had swung, and Allagui could well have had a second after Männel saved an initial shot form Christopher Buchtmann, only for Kalig to slide in for the ball at the last moment. A cross from Dudziak, with his tail up, looked dangerously close to going into the top corner as well, although Männel had that covered.

Kempe heads in for a point

Allagui still has just one league goal for St. Pauli, and that statistic didn’t change with his overhead kick a few minutes into the second half. He blazes it over after a header from Lasse Sobiech.

Aue would only come close again themselves more than 20 minutes into the half. Mario Kvesic put in a perfect pass to Köpke, however Christopher Avevor cut off his shooting angle, with the eventual shot saved and put out for a corner by Himmelmann.

That was quickly followed by another, which resulted in the equaliser. Kempe’s header fell to Köpke, but he couldn’t direct his effort on target. The ball came again to Kempe, who made no mistake this time. It was his first goal since joining from Karlsruher SC in the summer.

St. Pauli looked to restore their lead, with Buchtmann having the best chance. Played through by Mats Möller Daehli, he broke clear on the left, but saw his shot sent into the side netting by Männel. In stoppage time, another good run from the midfielder gave Allagui a chance, but that was blocked. The hosts were ending the game on top, but would have to settle for another 1-1 draw.

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