FC St. Pauli

Head coach Alexander Blessin was without the injured Manolis Saliakas and Morgan Guilavogui for the trip to Leipzig. New signing Siebe Van der Heyden took the place of Saliakas, slotting into the left-hand side of defence with Philipp Treu switching to the right. For Guilavogui, Carlo Boukhalfa made his first start since mid-January. Leipzig boss Marco Rose made five changes from the scoreless draw at Union Berlin last time out. His side went into the game desperate to end a run of four league games without a win, while the Boys in Brown were looking to make it four successive games without a defeat.

With the temperature hovering just above freezing, the Blessin XI made a bright start to the proceedings and almost took the lead in the second minute. An Eric Smith free-kick fell to Jackson Irvine five metres out, but his effort was blocked by Castello Lukeba with Péter Gulácsi already beaten. Though the home side dominated the possession from the off, they struggled to find a gap in the solid St. Pauli rearguard.

Then, with 15 minutes gone, the game suddenly burst into life. The Boys in Brown launched a counterattack which ended with Lukeba deflecting a ball in from Johannes Eggestein towards his own goal and Gulácsi had to pull out all the stops to turn it onto the post. Moments later, the home side drove forward, and Xavi Simons teed up Benjamin Šeško to wrongfoot David Nemeth and stroke a pinpoint effort beyond Nikola Vasilj into the far corner of the net.

Leipzig boast a decent goal conversion rate in any case and here they had found the net with their first attempt on goal, which was doubly disappointing for the Boys in Brown, who had defended brilliantly to that point and continued to give nothing away until the 35^th minute, when things went from bad to worse. From a long ball forward the Blessin XI allowed Šeško to find space and after playing a one-two with Ridle Baku the striker unselfishly cut the ball back for Xavi to slide home from 11 metres. Once again, there was nothing Vasilj could do to stop it.

The game had something of the DFB Cup in late October about it, when the Boys in Brown conceded too easily and found themselves 3-1 down in the first half before going on to lose 4-2. This time it was 2-0 at the break, but only because Noah Weißhaupt was extremely unlucky in time added on when he rattled the underside of the crossbar with a fierce volley after a corner had been helped on towards the back post.

Eric Smith and David Nemeth challenge Benjamin Šeško, who had a hand in both Leipzig goals.

An unchanged St. Pauli side took the field for the second half, while for Leipzig Nicolas Seiwald came on for Lutsharel Geertruida, who was on a yellow. More in attack was needed from the Boys in Brown, something they had managed to produce in the cup game just over three months ago, even though it proved too little in the end. The home side continued to give nothing away after the restart, prompting Blessin to make a double switch on 57, Adam Dźwigała and Elias Saad entering the fray for Siebe Van der Heyden and Carlo Boukhalfa. Four minutes later, Saad collected a fine ball from Irvine and pulled the trigger from the left channel, only for Seiwald to slide in and turn it behind for a corner.

The Blessin XI were enjoying more of the play now and from a Dźwigała ball in Saad was unable to find the target with an effort on the turn. Soon after that, Eggestein won the ball off Xavi in the Leipzig half and fed Saad, who was brought down in a central position just outside the box by Willi Orban, leaving referee Florian Badstübner no choice but to show him the red card for a last-man foul. Eric Smith stepped up to take the free-kick, but curled it just over. With Leipzig down to ten, the Boys in Brown had around 20 minutes to salvage something from the encounter and extend their unbeaten run to four games. Substitute Loïs Openda could have settled it on 75, however, but with just Vasilj to beat he opted to square the ball to no one in particular instead of going for goal himself, ensuring there was still everything left to play for.

Scott Banks and Abdoulie Ceesay came on for David Nemeth and Noah Weißhaupt for the closing stages. The Boys in Brown upped the pressure but were unable to create any chances of note against a Leipzig side who were now content to sit back. Vasilj was finally called into action six minutes from time, but Openda's shot, the home side's fourth attempt on goal, proved no problem. Back at the other end Irvine was given a free header from a Smith free-kick, but unfortunately the ball flew straight into the arms of Gulácsi. The Leipzig keeper was in the spotlight again moments later, first dealing with an Eggestein header and then defusing a long-range effort from Hauke Wahl. The ball simply wouldn't go in. Vasilj then produced two saves in quick succession to deny Openda and Christoph Baumgartner before Openda squandered another chance on the stroke of full-time.

Leipzig

Gulácsi - Geertruida (Seiwald 46'), Orban, Lukeba (Klostermann 83') - Baku, Haidara, Kampl (Baumgartner 72'), Raum - Nusa (Bitshiabu 72'), Xavi - Šeško (Openda 72')

Head coach: Marco Rose

FC St. Pauli

Vasilj - Wahl, Smith, Nemeth (Ceesay 80') - Treu, Irvine, Sands, Van der Heyden (Dźwigała 57') - Boukhalfa (Saad 57'), Eggestein, Weißhaupt (Banks 80')

Head coach: Alexander Blessin

Goals: 1-0 Šeško (16'), 2-0 Xavi (35')

Yellow cards: Geertruida, Kampl – Van der Heyden, Dźwigała

Red card: Orban (last-man foul 70')

Referee: Florian Badstübner (Nürnberg)

Attendance: 46,021

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters