Elias Saad secures important win for St. Pauli at early challengers SC Freiburg.
Freiburg’s excellent start to the new Bundesliga season came to an abrupt halt as they lost 3--0 at home to St. Pauli.
Tunisian Saad scored twice and Englishman Oladapo Afolayan once to give the team from Hamburg an important victory and boost them up the table.
The bright new Europa-Park Stadion was in a vibrant mood ahead of the visit of lowly St. Pauli, expecting their team to consolidate in the Bundesliga top three.
But it turned into a bad afternoon for the home side despite early threats from prominent midfielders Grifo and the tall Dincki.
However it was Alexander Blessin’s side, backed by their vociferous support, who went in front when Saad, in space, delivered from inside the area on 12 minutes.
That was definitely not in the script and we saw the pace of the action step up a level with Grifo going close for the home team and Eric Smith for the visitors.
Up to then the highly rated Ritsu Doan was not involved although his pacy left skills featured late in the half.
But within five minutes of the break a potential turning point occurred as Freiburg missed a penalty (Grifo’s weak effort was easily saved by Vasilj) followed by a second for St. Pauli.
This time Saad miscued a left cross only for it to break for Afolayan to nicely convert.
2-0 to the visitors at the interval was somewhat fortunate but they had taken their chances.
It was clear Freiburg had to get Doan more into the play and he did, at times, while sub. Weisshaupt was often dangerous down the left flank.
But ultimately St. Pauli would clinch the points, taking them up to 14th, on 72 after Saad broke away to force a shot past Atubolu, who should have done much better.
And the day continued to be frustrating for Freiburg, who had much more possession, after at least two more close VAR decisions ruled out initially given goals.
So definitely a bad day at the office for Julian Schuster’s men when nothing seemed to go right.
Though it was clearly a different story for the Millerntor team, their fans, and a certain blond-haired Tunisian.
Report from Freiburg - John Bethell
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