FC St. Pauli

Head coach Alexander Blessin made two changes to the side that lost 2-1 at Dortmund last time out. Fit-again Carlo Boukhalfa returned to the team along with Luxembourg international Danel Sinani, who was making his first start in almost a year. Robert Wagner and Oladapo Afolayan dropped to the bench, where they were joined by new recruit Eric Oelschlägel. Wolfsburg made three adjustments after the 4-2 home defeat to Werder Bremen, Kilian Fischer, Joakim Maehle and Yannick Gerhardt replacing captain Maximilian Arnold (one-match ban), Sebastiaan Bornauw (ill) and Jakub Kaminski (bench).

It was a hard-fought contest from the off but the first goalscoring opportunity of note took a while to materialise, not least because both teams lacked punch and precision in the final third early on. With a quarter of an hour gone, Sinani won the ball on the halfway line, enabling Johannes Eggestein to burst forward towards the South Stand and pull the trigger from outside the area. The shot was too centrally placed, however, and Wolfsburg keeper Kamil Grabara got down to smother. A couple of minutes later Eggestein squandered an opportunity to punish a loss of possession by  Denis Vavro. Bearing down on Grabara he opted to square the ball to Sinani instead of going for goal himself, allowing Konstantinos Koulierakis to step in and tidy up. The Boys in Brown had much more of the game now and piled on the pressure midway through the half, mostly down the left. The visitors remained largely anonymous, and any attacks they did launch were stifled in the making.

Just after the half-hour Wolfsburg moved the ball forward quickly for a change and Joakim Maehle was allowed space to shoot from just outside the box, but his curling effort flew a couple of metres wide of the right-hand post. Suddenly, the game burst into life. The Blessin XI had several opportunities to force the ball over the line from a corner, but it simply refused to go in. Almost immediately, the advancing Ridle Baku had a sight of goal but delayed too long, allowing Karol Mets to stop him in his tracks. At the other end, Guilavogui bent a distance effort past the right-hand angle and just before the interval Jackson Irvine came agonisingly close to bagging his side's first goal at the Millerntor this season. Carlo Boukhalfa backheeled the ball to Guilavogui, who laid the ball off for the skipper to shoot from 14 metres, only for Grabara to throw up a left hand to divert the ball over the crossbar. The visitors then came close to taking the lead themselves in time added on when Jonas Wind met a corner with his head and produced a smart save from Nikola Vasilj.

Much of the first-half play went through Morgan Guilavogui, who proved unstoppable for the Wolfsburg defence on several occasions.

Neither coach made a change for the second half, which began with a scare when the Boys in Brown failed to deal with a long ball forward and Vasilj was called upon to defuse a Mohammed Amoura effort from inside the box. The two players were in the thick of things again moments later when Amoura popped up unmarked in front of the keeper following a pass in behind and Vasilj kept it at 0-0 once again. It was now a high-tempo affair that ebbed and flowed and in the 52^nd minute Guilavogui found the net from an Eric Smith free-kick, only for the goal to be chalked off for offside.

Six minutes later, Vavro inadvertently diverted a long forward by Smith into the path of Eggestein with his head. The striker bore down on Grabara but was late getting the shot off and Koulierakis was able to block. Kilian Fischer then gave the ball away, allowing Guilavogui to knock the ball back to Sinani, whose venomous drive was tipped just over the bar by Grabara. Moments later Sinani was again denied by Grabara from the edge of the box. That was the last of the action for the Luxembourg man, who made way for Oladapo Afolayan. He had only just come on when he produced a textbook pass to tee up the unmarked Guilavogui, but he too dallied and Ridle Baku managed to get in the way of the shot. Another opportunity squandered.

With the game about the enter the closing stages, the visitors were presented with an unexpected opportunity to break when Boukhalfa slipped just inside his own half, allowing Wind to send the fleet-footed Amoura on his way. He let fly from just outside the box, but the shot arced well wide of the goal. Wolfsburg pushed again and Tiago Tomás was denied by Vasilj from the edge of the area before blasting the rebound into the South Stand. Soon after, Blessin made a second substitution, introducing Scott Banks for Johannes Eggestein.

For all their efforts late on, the Boys in Brown no longer posed a threat. The visitors had more of the game but neither side was able to fashion an opportunity of note, though Grabara did have to dive low to his left to keep out a Smith free-kick in time added on. There was time for Wolfsburg sub Kevin Behrens to head over from a corner before the referee ended a contest in which both teams had chances to win it.

FC St. Pauli

Vasilj - Wahl, Smith, Mets - Saliakas, Irvine, Boukhalfa (Wagner 87'), Treu - Sinani (Afolayan 66'), Eggestein (Banks 82'), Guilavogui

Head coach: Alexander Blessin

VfL Wolfsburg

Grabara - Fischer (Kaminski 67'), Vavro, Koulierakis, Maehle - Baku, Özcan, Gerhardt, Tiago Tomás - Wind (Majer 78'), Amoura (Behrens 89')

Head coach: Ralph Hasenhüttl

Yellow cards: Wind, Majer, Kaminski

Referee: Tobias Reichel (Sindelfingen)

Attendance: 29,546 (sold out)

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters