FC St. Pauli

Head coach Fabian Hürzeler: “We didn’t start well and didn’t threaten until the 30^th minute. Paderborn didn’t surprise us with their compact style of play. They waited for us to make a mistake and unfortunately we made too many of them. At half-time we said we wanted to play clearer and more consistent football and it turned out to be one of our best 45 minute performances so far. We were very dominant, had lots of chances and took a fully deserved lead. Then came the injection of pace through Conteh. We gave the ball away cheaply and didn’t defend it very well. That meant it was 2-2 and Paderborn almost landed a lucky punch near the end. I’m satisfied with the second-half performance, less so with the result. We can build on the reaction after the break. We have to find solutions against teams who sit back and do better with our gegenpressing. There are definitely some points for us to work on.”

Jackson Irvine: “It was a wild game that started with Paderborn scoring an incredible goal. The first half was a tactical affair but after the interval we played with more intensity and quality. We were more assured in everything we did. We’re a bit disappointed not to have won the game having gone 2-1 in front ten minutes from the end. We need to be cleverer, win more second balls and not allow a player with the pace of Conteh so much space. We have to learn from the performance again. The first half should have been much better from us, but we can be very pleased with the second, when we showed what a good team we are. We’ve taken a point off strong opposition. Over the 90 minutes it’s a fair result.”

Johannes Eggestein: “We had a few problems early on and found no answers. Paderborn closed the middle down very well. Things improved after we went behind because we made a change and were much the better team after the break. We changed a few things and played down the flanks more, which meant we generated lots of good actions and set pieces, such as the one that led to my equaliser. We then took a deserved lead. Their equaliser is annoying, but it's a fair result all in all.“

Lukas Kwasniok (Paderborn coach): “We wanted to stay compact against the best and most dominant team in the league, which we did very well early on. After the brilliant strike from Muslija we were more passive. We were sloppy on winning possession, which annoyed me. Apart from the chance for Muslija we had three of four counterattacks where we should have got a shot off. St. Pauli missed a sitter straight after the restart and then we let them fend us off too easily from a set piece and suddenly it was 1-1, though it was deserved at the stage. We were a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights after that and it was simply about defending from then on. We then had the biggest chance through Bilbija, when Vasilj produced an outstanding save. When St. Pauli went 2-1 up I had the feeling that the crowd had lost all hope of us getting a point or a win, but you keep going and we have a good bench. With the courage born of desperation, we made a switch and got the equaliser thanks to the pace of Conteh. It may have been a bit lucky all things considered, but the lads worked hard for it. It would have been overkill if we’d emerged victorious with the lucky punch near the end.”

Photos: Witters