St. Pauli adds first ever title to promotion campaign
Second division St. Pauli capped a stellar promotion season by sealing a league title for the first time in its history with a 2-1 win over Wehen Wiesbaden.
Hamburg-based St. Pauli and second-place Holstein Kiel had both secured promotion to the Bundesliga before the last day of games but were competing for the prestige of being promoted as 2. Bundesliga champion.
Spearheaded by captain and Socceroos star Jackson Irvine, who grabbed an assist for his side's first goal, St. Pauli won 2-1 at Wehen Wiesbaden to edge Holstein, which beat Hannover 2-1, by a point. The northern city of Hamburg, Germany’s second-largest, will have a top-division team for the first time since St Pauli's fierce rival, Hamburger SV, was relegated in 2018.
Third-place Fortuna Düsseldorf will face 16th-place Bundesliga team Bochum in a two-legged promotion-relegation playoff on 23 and 27 May. F Koln and Darmstadt are relegated from the Bundesliga to the second division for next season.
Hansa Rostock joined Osnabrueck in being relegated to the third division. Hansa’s last game was suspended for around 25 minutes when its fans launched fireworks toward the field. The game eventually ended in a 2-1 loss to Paderborn.
