Pauli deservedly take 103rd Hamburg derby

Ruthless Pauli lead at the break

Joel Pohjanpalo's dramatic 96th-minute equaliser earned the Finn a starting berth for the first time in HSV colours, replacing Lukas Hinterseer, whilst captain Aaron Hunt returned to the starting XI for the injured Jeremy Dudziak. The game started at a furious tempo as the Rothosen hit the woodwork twice inside the opening 10 minutes with both chances coming after good work down the right-hand side. Firstly Jordan Beyer drove into the space and pulled it back cleverly to Sonny Kittel on the edge, who let the ball roll onto his unfavoured left foot and let fly, only to see his effort smack against the crossbar. Just three minutes later it should have been two, as Bakery Jatta did excellently to win a ball that looked like it was going out for a goal kick, driving along the right-hand baseline and squaring to Joel Pohjanpalo, but the ball was just an inch too far in front of the Finn, whose effort squirmed against the base of the post. The hosts' profilgacy in front of goal was punished in the 20th minute as St. Pauli went in front with their first meaningful attack of the game. Miyaichi won a wayward pass in the middle of the park and van Drongelen and Letschert were left 2-on-2 against Veerman and Diamantakos. Veerman took on van Drongelen on the outside and outpaced his fellow Dutchman before coolly slotting past the helpless Heuer Fernandes to give the away side their first scalp of the contest. 

It got worse just before the half-hour mark as the guests doubled their lead. A St. Pauli attack could only be cleared as far as Matthew Penney, who sweetly struck a left-footed effort from all of 25 yards, the ball nestling in the bottom-left hand corner beyond the despairing dive of Daniel Heuer Fernandes. After a furious start, the Rothosen had suffered two sucker punches from the two meaningful attacks the guests had had in the first period and needed time to register what had happened. As the half came to a close, the Rothosen started to come into the game again, with a cross from Tim Leibold just a few inches too high for Louis Schaub's head and a cross-cum-shot from Bakery Jatta whistling just past Robin Himmelmann's left-hand upright. Hamburg should have led inside after the opening exchanges, and were punished for their wastefulness by two deadly efforts from the visitors.