Dhe FC St. Pauli has put a damper on the first division ambitions of 1. FC Heidenheim and is now involved in the promotion race of the 2nd Bundesliga. FCH deservedly lost 1-0 (0-1) against the North Germans in the intense top game on Saturday and slipped down to third place behind Hamburger SV (53) with a further 51 points.
Thanks to Marcel Hartel’s goal (41st minute), St. Pauli is now within striking distance with 47 points as fourth in the table and has improved its super series to ten wins in a row. The Hamburgers also expanded the second division start record of coach Fabian Hürzeler. In addition, the home run of the Heidenheimers, who had previously been unbeaten in 14 games across the season in the Voith Arena, ended.
The guests were initially the more active team in front of 15,000 spectators in the sold-out stadium, even without their ailing defender Eric Smith. It took Heidenheim around 20 minutes to break his reserve. But second division top scorer Tim Kleindienst missed the lead twice (28th, 30th). On the other hand, Lukas Daschner initially missed after a mistake by FCH goalkeeper Kevin Müller, before Hartel scored to make it 0-1 with a powerful shot into the top left corner.
After the break, Heidenheim pushed for an equaliser, but found it difficult against St. Pauli’s compact defence. Jan-Niklas Beste (73rd) missed the best chance to score from close range. On the other hand, it was substitute David Otto, who missed the 0:2 with a crossbar shot from 16 meters (76th) as well as with a counterattack in injury time (90th + 5).