CREDITABLE 4-4 DRAW AT GLADBACH
Friday, 24. March 2017, 20:01 Uhr
A strong performance earned St. Pauli a respectable 4-4 draw in a friendly at Bundesliga outfit Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday afternoon. Waldemar Sobota, Bernd Nehrig, Jan-Marc Schneider and Philipp Ziereis got the goals for the Boys in Brown, who visited the headquarters of sponsors Congstar before the match and were given a warm reception.
The game took place on the BORUSSIA Park complex adjacent to the main stadium, the home of today's opponents. For Ewald Lienen and his coaching staff, the international break offered an opportunity to try out some tactical refinements ahead of the end-of-season run-in and give some of the squad players a chance to show what they can do. It was the home side who had the better of the opening exchanges, however. Ba-Muaka Simakala came within a whisker of scoring in the sixth minute and then Robin Himmelmann pulled off two good stops to deny Nico Schulz and Patrick Herrmann.
After surviving the early onslaught, the Boys in Brown began to find their feet. Following a wonderful one-two involving Kyoungrok Choi and Lennart Thy on the quarter-hour the latter took the ball round goalkeeper Tobias Sippel but the angle proved too tight and the chance was gone. Ewald Lienen's side continued to show glimpses of quality and the Bundesliga outfit struggled to cope with their high pressing game.
Yet just when St. Pauli seemed to have everything under control, the home side struck. After Gladbach won the ball in midfield the ball pinged around the penalty box and Simakala toe-ended the ball into the net to open the scoring on the half-hour. Dieter Hecking's men were at their most dangerous when they broke quickly, and André Hahn went close after a rapid interchange of passes in the 36th minute. At the other end, Waldemar Sobota dispatched a shot wide of the goal with the outside of his boot two minutes later but then made no mistake and restored parity with an effort from distance that left Sippel no chance.
Before the friendly at Borussia Mönchengladbach the Boys in Brown visited Congstar in Cologne. Captain Sören Gonther presented the sponsors with a piece of turf.
Head coach Ewald Lienen: "It was a good test for us today, even though you could tell the lads have been training hard in the last few days. We were at Congstar in Cologne before the game and the lads were still feeling the effects of the early start. As a result, Gladbach could have been further in front in the opening stages. After half an hour we were well in the game and deserved to draw level. In the second half we defended really well. We gave them hardly any chances and scored three ourselves. Towards the end we started making mistakes again and were made to pay by strong opponents."
FC St. Pauli
Himmelmann – Park (Gonther 46'), Sobiech, Ziereis (Koglin 72'), Buballa – Kalla, Nehrig (Rosin 64'), Buchtmann (Neudecker 64'), Sobota (Litka 64') – Thy (Schneider 46'), Choi (Empen 75')
Head coach: Ewald Lienen
Goals: 1-0 Simakala (30'), 1-1 Sobota (41') 1-2 Nehrig (50'), 1-3 Schneider (58'), 1-4 Ziereis (60'), 2-4 Hofmann (77'), 3-4 Yeboah (82'), 4-4 Herrmann (88')
Referee: Dr Martin Thomsen
Photos: Witters / Eduard Bopp (Express)
