FC St. Pauli

With his international players missing and several injury absentees, head coach Alexander Blessin made a raft of changes to the team that started against Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. Eric Oelschlägel made his first appearance between the posts for the club, and several players from the Under-23s and the youth academy featured in the squad. Braunschweig also rotated after the 3-1 defeat of Hamburg.

The Boys in Brown began with a back four, three in midfield and the customary three-man attack, with the latter finding themselves up against a deep-lying back five. It took 23 minutes for the first dangerous moment to materialise, midfielder Robert Wagner collecting the ball from Marwin Schmitz and forcing Braunschweig keeper Lennart Grill into a save from around 25 metres.

Wagner then picked up a knock and left the field to be replaced by Hauke Wahl after 34 minutes. The home side threatened for the first time soon after that. Walid Ould-Chikh picked out the unmarked Sebastian Polter, who fired into the side netting with only Eric Oelschlägel to beat. The same player then headed wide of the target on the stroke of half-time.

The Boys in Brown again threatened first after the break. Schmitz delivered a free-kick into the box, where Maurides headed towards goal and Grill made the save. Andreas Albers was then denied on the rebound.

With an hour gone, Erik Ahlstrand forced his way into the box from the right and was brought down. Albers took the spot kick but was denied. Almost immediately, Sven Köhler exploited some confusion in the St. Pauli defence but directed his effort wide of the target.

In the 71^st minute Polter squandered another Braunschweig opportunity when he took the ball around Oelschlägel and set his sights on the unguarded goal, but David Nemeth slid in to clear the ball off the line. Moments later, Wahl brought down Polter in the box and the referee awarded a penalty, which Philippe converted with aplomb.

The response was not long in coming. A long ball from Saliakas was knocked into the path of Albers by Julien Yanda, and the Danish striker found the far corner with a left-foot shot. There were no more chances after that and it ended 1-1, a fair result all things considered.

Eintracht Braunschweig

Grill (Johansson 46’) – Jaeckel (Borsum 79’), Nikolaou, Kaufmann (Queisser 79’), Ould-Chikh (Gomez 63’), Polter (Tytarenko 79’), Ehlers, Sanchez (Bell Bell 46’), Ba, Köhler, Conteh (Philippe 63’)

Head coach: Daniel Scherning

FC St. Pauli

Oelschlägel – Nemeth, Eggestein (Albers 46’), Stevens (Yanda 73’) , Boukhalfa (Politz 76’), Afolayan (Ahlstrand 46’), Ritzka (Dibamba 73’), Dźwigała (Staugaard 73’), Guilavogui (Maurides 46’), Wagner (Wahl 34’), Schmitz

Head coach: Alexander Blessin

Goals: 1-0 Philippe (pen. 74’), 1-1 Albers (79’)

Yellow cards: Staugaard

Referee: Timon Schultz (TSV Germania Arpke)

Photos: FC St. Pauli