Arminia Bielefeld has taken a first step out of the sporting crisis thanks to the double goal scorer Janni Serra and ended the slight upward trend of FC St. Pauli. Substitute Serra (76th minute/84th) scored both goals in the 2-0 (0-0) win for Arminia on Saturday evening, who have left the last place in the 2nd Bundesliga table for the time being. On Sunday (1.30 p.m.), however, fellow relegated SpVgg Greuther Fürth and promoted 1. FC Magdeburg could pass again.
After three league defeats and the 6-0 debacle in the cup at VfB Stuttgart, coach Daniel Scherning’s team showed the hoped-for reaction. St. Pauli, on the other hand, is still stuck in the middle of the table after the strong cup game at SC Freiburg and the derby victory against HSV. Hamburg, who are weak away from home, are only three points ahead of Bielefeld and have not won in eleven games away from home.
The hosts had great problems getting into the game in front of 22,626 spectators. Little went offensively before the break, St. Pauli had the best chance to take the lead: Marcel Hartel failed after a pass from Lukas Daschner at the excellently reacting goalkeeper Martin Fraisl (19th).
After the change of sides, Bielefeld became more active and the game improved. But scoring chances were rare – until Serra came. “We said, ‘We’ll just play it. We really got our ass full a few days ago,” said Captain Fabian Klos on Sky: “If we play like we do today, we’ll score points.”
