St. Pauli claim bragging rights in Hamburg derby | OneFootball

Bundesliga’s first Hamburg derby in 14 years was largely a physical battle, as expected. HSV started positively, but the visitors quickly found their way in the first-half with a few goal-scoring chances. Jordan Torunarigha and Andréas Hountondji were impressive early on in their first Hamburg derby experience.

Adam Dzwigala, who saw the first caution of the game ten minutes earlier, broke the deadlock after a strange set-piece routine from St. Pauli. Including Daniel Heuer Fernandes, HSV players didn’t expect Danel Sinani to start the corner-kick with a short pass to Mathias Pereira Lage.

Unlike Dzwigala, Pereira Lage squandered a chance to score his first goal for St. Pauli when he failed to hit the target from a promising position after a good link-up play with the impressive Sinani.

That miss proved decisive as Hamburg started the second-half strongly. With their first chance of the game in the 48th minute, Ransford Königsdörffer leveled the score, but his expert finish was ruled out for a marginal offside call. A couple of minutes later, Nikola Vasilj made his first save from Miro Muheim’s free-kick.

Merlin Polzin hoped to build on the momentum by introducing Jean-Luc Dompé and Yussuf Poulsen. But St. Pauli doubled their advantage at the hour mark. Hountondji scored his second Bundesliga goal after a superb pass by Joel Fujita.

While the Benin international maintained his splendid start, Torunarigha struggled at the heart of Hamburg’s defense. The former Hertha Berlin defender was at fault for another golden Pereira Lage chance, but the attempt was weak once again.

Königsdörffer, who is set to stay at the club after a move to OGC Nice collapsed, had another chance to score HSV’s first Bundesliga goal when his header was gathered by Vasilj.

Hamburg fans were hopeful to see their high-profile signing Luka Vuskovic, but the game state didn’t allow that. They dealt another blow fifteen minutes from time when another new center-back Giorgi Gocholeishvili was sent off for two bookings..

Meanwhile, St. Pauli enjoyed an unforgettable derby day with Fernandes the busiest of the two keepers in the final 15 minutes. One of his saves was to deny Martijn Kaars a debut goal after the striker completed his move from Magdeburg earlier today.

HSV will hope to, at least, score their first Bundesliga goal in seven years when they travel to Bayern after the international break. St. Pauli climbed to the top of the standings before the remaining matchday two games on Saturday and Sunday. Alexander Blessin's team will next face FC Augsburg.