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St. Pauli and Wiesbaden played a hard-fought game

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Cathrin Mueller/Getty Images

At the end of the first half of the 2nd Bundesliga, St. Pauli drew 1-1 (1-0) with newly promoted SV Wehen Wiesbaden and is now two points behind Holstein Kiel in second place. Karlsruher SC won against SV Elversberg 3:2 (2:1) and Eintracht Braunschweig played 2:1 (1:1) against 1.

In reference to the fans as the "12th man", it remained quiet in Hamburg and Braunschweig in the first twelve minutes. KSC supporters also took part in the protest in Karlsruhe – at least until their team took the lead in the sixth minute. The fans thus made clear their rejection of the planned entry of an investor into the German Football League (DFL).

No defeat in 17 games, quarter-finals in the DFB Cup: St. Pauli could actually be highly satisfied with the first half of the season – if it weren't for the matter of draws: Hamburg had to share the points nine times. After two draws against Hamburger SV and VfL Osnabrück, the third in a row followed against Wiesbaden.

There was no shortage of chances, but Elias Saad (14th minute/23rd) and Marcel Hartel (18th) only managed to get the ball next to the goal from a good position. Newly promoted Wiesbaden hardly had any chances of their own because they were inferior in midfield. Instead, only St. Pauli played in the second half and were rewarded with a bit of luck: Hartel scored the 1-0 because his shot was deflected (47th). Jackson Irvine (54th/63rd), Hartel (58th/72nd), Saad (73rd) and Eric Smith (78th) failed to extend the lead – and Wiesbaden punished that.

Irvine lost the ball in midfield and John Iredale initiated the counter-attack, after a one-two with Florian Carstens he converted safely from eleven meters (85th). Connor Metcalfe was denied by Florian Stritzel, who reacted quickly with his foot, as he did against Irvine (87'). Thanks to the point, Wiesbaden remains eleventh in the table as a newly promoted team.

Braunschweig were still 13 points behind Kaiserslautern in November, but now Eintracht have moved to within four points of FCK. Kaiserslautern didn't have a shot on goal in the first half – and yet it was 1-1 when Robin Krauße (14') extended an FCK free-kick from Tymoteusz Puchacz into his own goal. Rayan Philippe (36') equalised after a well-played counterattack.

Kaiserslautern slept through the start of the second half and consequently conceded the second goal through Johan Gómez (62nd). The supposed 2-2 by Ragnar Ache in injury time was cancelled out due to an offside position.

Nevertheless, Braunschweig is spending the winter in a relegation position. Kaiserslautern are in 15th place, one point ahead of the relegation zone.

At the end of a strong first half of the season, newly promoted Elversberg suffered their third defeat in a row. Although Elversberg managed to catch up with goals from Bayern loanee Paul Wanner (29') and Luca Schnellbacher (63'), they were unable to equalise KSC's goals from Dzenis Burnic (6'), Budu Siwsiwadze (16') and Igor Matanović (53').

This puts Elversberg (24 points), who had two aluminium misfortunes, in the no-man's-land of the table. The gap to both the upper and lower relegation places is seven points each. With 21 points, KSC is now gaining some breathing space to the relegation zone.

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