BUNDESLIGA PLAYER RATINGS | St. Pauli 2-1 Werder Bremen – Hosts triumph in relegation scrap | OneFootball

Sunday afternoon pitted two of the league’s bottom three against each other, with 17th-placed St. Pauli hosting 16th-placed Werder Bremen. With the business end of the season fast approaching, the Bundesliga relegation battle is beginning to come to the fore. 

With just two points separating the two teams at kick-off, Alexander Blessin’s men would leapfrog their visitors with a repeat of their last result at the Millerntor, coming out 2-1 victors against high-flying Stuttgart. The former Union St-Gilloise head coach made a total of three changes to the starting XI that succumbed to a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen last weekend.

The visitors, meanwhile, in desperate need of an upturn in form having failed to win any of their previous 12 league outings, made just one change from last weekend’s defeat to Bayern Munich, with Samuel Mbangula replacing the injured Karim Coulibaly.

After a quiet opening 20 minutes, the game’s first real chance fell to Romano Schmid following some neat build-up play from Jens Stage. The former should have done better with the opportunity, sending a tame effort straight into the arms of Nikola Vasilj in the St. Pauli goal.

Bremen squandered another excellent chance on the half-hour mark after a free kick from Schmid was palmed back into the danger area by Vasilj. The ball fell kindly to Stage, but Bremen’s top scorer this season failed to make decent contact.

Bremen made a strong start to the second half and, with a curling strike from Mbangula, soon forced a good save from Vasilj.

Five minutes later, St. Pauli made the most of those saves from Vasilj and took the lead against the run of play through an uncharacteristic mistake from Mio Backhaus in the Bremen goal. What looked to be a simple save from Hauke Wahl’s header somehow evaded the arms of the German U21 international.

Daniel Thioune’s side were not behind for long, though, equalising after a goalmouth scramble sparked by an inviting cross from Mbangula, with substitute Jovan Milošević firing home from close range just moments after he and Leonardo Bittencourt were introduced from the bench.

St. Pauli would not be deterred in their pursuit of victory and retook the lead with 20 minutes remaining when Manolis Saliakas’ pass found Joel Chima Fujita unmarked inside the box. The Japanese international sent his effort brilliantly past Mio Backhaus and into the bottom corner for his first goal for the Kiezkicker.

Blessin’s men successfully ran down the clock to secure back-to-back home wins for the first time since their return to the Bundesliga in 2024. The victory moves St. Pauli above Bremen into 16th place, meaning Daniel Thioune’s side now occupies one of the two automatic relegation spots for the first time this season.

St. Pauli 2–1 Werder Bremen | Player Ratings

St. Pauli:

Nikola Vasilj (7) – Tomoya Ando (6), Hauke Wahl (8), Karol Mets (6) – Manolis Saliakas (6), Jackson Irvine (6), Eric Smith (6), Arkadiusz Pyrka (7) – Joel Chima Fujita (6), Daniel Sinani (6) – Martijn Kaars (5)

Others: Mathias Pereira Lage (6), James Sands (-)

Werder Bremen:

Mio Backhaus (4) – Senne Lynen (5), Niklas Stark (5), Marco Friedl (5) – Justin Njinmah (5), Jens Stage (5), Cameron Puertas (6), Isaac Schmidt (4) – Samuel Mbangula (6), Romano Schmid (5) – Marco Grüll (5)

Others: Leonardo Bittencourt (6), Jovan Milošević (7), Keke Topp (–)

GGFN Man of the Match | Hauke Wahl (8)

Aside from his opener for St. Pauli, self-proclaimed HSV fan Wahl led from the back with authority. He won 100% of his duels and registered 13 clearances (via Fotmob), underlining his dominance at the heart of defence.

GGFN | Harry Good