After the match against Olympique Lyon and before the match against Atalanta Bergamo, FC St. Pauli played at Norwich City on Saturday, August 3rd. The match started at 3 p.m. local time (4 p.m. Hamburg time). Immediately after kick-off, the players and spectators in the stadium remembered Craig Shakespeare. The former head coach of Norwich City died on August 1st at the age of 60 after a serious illness. Instead of a minute’s silence, the almost 10,000 people in the stadium on Carrot Road clapped long and hard to celebrate life. A moving gesture.
Then it started – accompanied by loud shouts of “St. Pauli!” from the away section, which was filled with a good 400 fans. FC St. Pauli started with new signing Morgan Guilavogui and Johannes Eggestein as strikers; in midfield, Connor Metcalfe and Robert Wagner applied massive pressure against the ball, while captain Jackson Irvine lurked centrally behind them to win the ball. And in the defense, from left to right, Philipp Treu, Karol Mets, Eric Smith, Hauke Wahl and new signing Fin Stevens were in the starting eleven, which was completed by goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj.
Vasilj was able to demonstrate his skills after just three minutes when Norwich fired a powerful shot from around 16 meters, which Niko even managed to hold onto. The English second division team then tried to outwit our defense with long balls, but in the 18th minute Sankt Pauli struck: Eric Smith took a corner from the right, Jackson Irvine headed the ball and buried it to give the Hamburg Bundesliga team the lead.
In the 32nd minute it was 2-0: Philipp Treu won the ball in counter-pressing and Morgan Guilavogui safely sank the ball into the Norwich goal from a half-left position.
The third goal for St. Pauli was scored in the 39th minute: Jackson Irvine passed to Morgan Guilavogui, who moved into the penalty area and then played a strong pass to Johannes Eggestein, who scored the third goal for FCSP. Norwich was visibly impressed; after the English had played boldly forward at the beginning, not much was coming from the “Canaries”, which the spectators responded to with expressions of displeasure at the half-time whistle.
Numerous changes at half-time
Head coach Alex Blessin made a number of changes in the second half. Elias Saad, Dapo Afolayan, Danel Sinani, Scott Banks, Carlo Boukhalfa, Adam Dźwigała and David Nemeth were allowed to take to the Norwich pitch. The home team started the second half with a counterattack, Jonathan Rowe came through on the right and scored the equalizer in the 47th minute, which brightened the mood among the home fans considerably.
After an hour there were further substitutions, with Ben Voll taking over the position in goal for St. Pauli and Lars Ritzka coming on for Philipp Treu. Around ten minutes later, Borja Sainz and St. Pauli centre-back Karol Mets exchanged a few “pleasantries” after the Norwich player had apparently asked for more information. Norwich were now able to make the game more balanced, with most of the action taking place between the penalty areas. The away section continued to support loudly and even encouraged the neighbouring sections to chant in sync, which was a nice end to this successful friendly match in Norwich.
Head coach Alex Blessin was mostly satisfied with the game. The trained processes were implemented very well, particularly in the attacking game. However, there is still a lot of work to be done before the start of the DFB Cup and the Bundesliga, “but things are going in the right direction,” said Blessin.
FC St. Pauli
First half: Vasilj – Treu – Mets – Smith – Wahl – Stevens – Irvine – Metcalfe – Wagner – Guilavogui – Eggestein
Second half: Vasilj (59. Voll) – Treu – Mets – Nemeth – Dźwigała – Irvine (75. Schmitz) – Boukhalfa – Banks – Sinani – Afolayan – Saad
Head Coach: Alex Blessin
Norwich City
Gunn – Stacey (46. Fisher) – Hanley – Sainz – Gibbs (46. Gibbs) – Sargent (67. Idah) – Chrisene (60. Warner) – Sorensen – Mclean – Nunez – Rowe (72. Fassnacht)
Head Coach: Johannes Hoff Thorup
Tore: 0:1 Irvine (18.), 0:2 Guilavogui (32.), 0:3 Eggestein (39.), 1:3 Rowe (47.)
Yellow card: Duffy (79.)
Referee: Dean Whitestone
Viewers: 9.959
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Photos: FC St. Pauli
