St Pauli plotting another miracle in Bundesliga survival battle

It had begun to look like a lost cause. St Pauli’s best-ever start — two wins and a draw from their first three games — felt like an age ago as nine successive defeats followed and Stuttgart arrived in form, sitting in a Champions League spot and fresh from DFB Pokal qualifying.

With injuries mounting for the hosts, the fixture looked straightforward for Sebastian Hoeness’s men. Instead St Pauli produced a surprise. They didn’t just consign the form book to the bin; their victory was richly deserved, perhaps born of the “siege mentality” Alexander Blessin mentioned afterwards or the freedom that comes with having little left to lose.

Something clicked, and loudly. Manolis Saliakas’s low drive from the edge of the box supplied the breakthrough after a swift move involving Jackson Irvine and Arkadiusz Pyrka and a Sinani dummy that opened space. Danel Sinani’s penalty provided the shelter from Jamie Leweling’s late reply for Stuttgart; Saliakas might have had a second but the ball had already crossed the byline before the cross arrived.

st pauli, bundesliga, stuttgart, manolis saliakas, danel sinani, jackson irvine, arkadiusz pyrka, jamie leweling, alexander blessin, sebastian hoeness