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"Form beats class" is a rule of thumb in horse racing.

Transferred to the Hamburg derby in the Second Bundesliga (Monday, 8.30 p.m.), the shares of FC St. Pauli should not be bad.

Because while the opponent HSV has been certified since the beginning of the season to have the strongest squad in the league, the Kiezklub has currently developed to the top of the second half of the season.

From the end of the convoy overnight to its head: How was that possible?

Some speak of "borrowed luck" because a number of those professionals who played a key role in the turnaround will most likely only be playing at Millerntor until the end of the season.

Just as it happened last summer when a drastic change in personnel threw St. Pauli off course.

But it doesn't have to be that bad this time.

Although some loans are actually kicking in the brown and white dress, only two field players belong to the team that has emerged for a few weeks.

The Uruguayan Rodrigo Zalazar and the Egyptian Omar Marmoush, who was only brought in in January.

Both have visibly contributed to making the offensive game faster and more unpredictable.

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Also on loan at Millerntor: Keeper Dejan Stojanovic and defensive midfielder Eric Smith, for whom FC St. Pauli has secured a purchase option from the Belgian first division club KAA Gent, which sports director Andreas Bornemann is guaranteed to pull if the 23-year-old Swede continues goes to work as robust and strong as in his previous missions

Goalkeeper Stojanovic did not disappoint and is therefore a man between the posts.

Last doubts about the qualities of the Austrian in terms of control of the penalty area still linger.

Meanwhile, one of the keeper's compatriots is mixing up the entire division: Guido Burgstaller.

Born in Carinthia, he feels like winter access, but moved to Hamburg at the end of September, but first had to work through a training deficit and then cure an injury.

His popularity is based not only on his accuracy, through which he decided several games in favor of his team, but also on his grip.

When he says to the hype about himself: “I don't give much into that.

I've been in the business for a while and I know: Sometimes you're the hero, sometimes the idiot, "then it doesn't look like a speech bubble, but believable.

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The derby will certainly be a duel between the goalscorer Simon Terodde and Burgstaller.

Who wins the upper hand, however, decides less in front of the gates and between the two penalty areas.

St. Pauli's showpiece is the offensive, 18 goals in the last seven games are convincing evidence.

The midfield was composed by trainer Timo Schultz as a diamond, which rolls out a sometimes virtuoso combination football, so that easily inflammable ones already adore the quartet as the "fantastic four".

Even less glamorous actors are on the rise, Afeez Aremu, for example, is slowly showing his potential.

The Nigerian had hidden that in the first half of the season, similar to Leart Paquarada, who had been puzzling for months as to why the club might have hired him.

In the meantime, he has become a long-missed asset and goal setter on the left wing.

40 goals conceded cannot be argued away

Which brings us to the defense.

Since the beginning of the year, Schultz has been delighted to have an adequate number of capable defensive players in the squad.

Sebastian Ohlsson is always one of the best as a right-back, James Lawrence has been the preferred candidate as head of defense since his Millerntor guest appearance in the 2019/20 season, Philipp Ziereis took a while after a long injury break, but now seems to be on the way to old strength.

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With all its individual quality, the rear chain often looks like an airy picket fence and less like a massive frieze wall in an emergency.

40 goals conceded cannot be disputed: only the three teams at the bottom of the table caught even more.

So the derby could decide exactly at this weak point.

Because with the leader of the table, by far the most dangerous team in the league comes to Millerntor.

And the fact that the better run beats the better squad is nothing more than a prognostic phrase.

Part of the truth is that the Kiezkicker sometimes won with all sorts of fools.

Schultz doesn't care: “Almost everything went wrong in the first half of the season, now we're sometimes lucky.

But we really worked for that. "

This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG.

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Source: Welt am Sonntag