St Pauli spoils party for 10-man Hamburg in derby
St Pauli struck once in either half to beat local rival Hamburg SV 2-0 in their much-anticipated derby, spoiling the party as the hosts celebrated a first Bundesliga home game in seven years.
Hamburg fans had dominated the pre-match proceedings with thousands marching through the city but St Pauli's Adam Dzwigala silenced the home crowd when he turned a cutback in for a 19th minute lead.
The hosts, who did not manage a single shot on target in the entire first half, thought they had levelled three minutes after the restart when Ransford-Yeboah Koenigsdoerffer broke through and slotted it in with one touch but he was ruled offside after a lengthy video assistant referee (VAR) review.
Hamburg, the 1983 European Cup winner, kept up the pressure but its comeback attempt was cut short when the visitors, still without injured Ausralian captain Jackson Irvine, struck again on the hour with Andreas Hountondji latching on to a perfectly-timed throughball to round the Hamburg keeper and score from the tightest of angles.
To make matters worse for Hamburg, Giorgi Gocholeishvili was sent off with a second booking in the 77th minute.
St Pauli has surged to the top of the early Bundesliga standings as a result of the win.
Six-time German champion Hamburg, once nicknamed the Bundesliga's 'dinosaurs' for having been in the top division for the longest uninterrupted spell since the league's creation in 1963, suffered a shock first relegation in 2018 and spent seven seasons in the second division.
The most recent time that the two Hamburg sides met in the top division was in 2010-2011.
