The most notable change to the line-up for this Matchday 10 fixture came at left-back. Christian Günter started in that position and made his 441st competitive appearance for SCF. This meant that the Freiburg captain overtook Andreas Zeyer (440 matches) as the club’s all-time record appearance maker.

Günter led the team out onto the field, accompanied by his daughter. Many photographs captured the moment as he was honoured by the club and received rapturous applause from the fans. The win over St. Pauli put the icing on the cake of Günter’s record-breaking afternoon. Julian Schuster was delighted for Günter. “It’s great that he was able to break the record here at his ‘home’,” said the head coach after the game.

Remaining patient

Along with Günter’s inclusion, there were two further changes to the side which won in Nice in the Europa League on Thursday. Philipp Treu replaced Lukas Kübler at right-back, while Niklas Beste came in for Derry Scherhant on the right flank. There was little goalmouth action in the opening stages. The visitors, who came into the game off the back of six league defeats in a row, were defensively compact early on. They came under pressure for the first time in the 14th minute.

SC attacked quickly down the left. Yuito Suzuki flicked the ball through to Beste, who went for goal with his left foot from a tight angle. Pauli goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj reacted well to prevent Freiburg from taking the lead. SCF had two more opportunities almost immediately afterwards through strikes from Maximilian Eggestein and Vincenzo Grifo. By the 25-minute mark, the home side were on top with over 70 percent possession, and St. Pauli were sitting deep in their own half. SC’s primary task was now to remain patient.

Third time lucky for Suzuki

Suzuki found himself free in the penalty area after a good, clever pass from Matthias Ginter, but he couldn’t quite get the right contact on the ball. This allowed Vasilj to make the save (28’). In the 40th minute, the corner statistics showed just how one-sided the game had been: seven for Freiburg, none for Pauli. The seventh corner and Suzuki’s third attempt on goal saw SCF’s patience finally rewarded. The Japanese attacker hammered home the opener after the set piece had initially been cleared (40’).

Five minutes into the second half, the action was almost exclusively happening at the visitors’ end. After Suzuki had missed a Grifo cross, Beste came onto the ball and played it into the middle. It then deflected off the goalkeeper into the path of Eggestein, who made it 2-0. This was a deserved second goal, as St. Pauli were still struggling to get a foothold in the match. Despite this, they managed to cut the deficit.

The visitors launched their first dangerous counterattack down the right, and it was finished off by Louis Oppie to reduce the arrears to 2-1 (69’). St. Pauli now looked to get back in the game, but, after a few minutes, SC managed to regain control. This time, it was through controlled passing rather than fast attacking play.

The visitors were back on the attack in the closing stages. Mathias Pereira Lage tried a shot from the edge of the box, but Noah Atubolu made the save (84’). Two minutes later, Oppie was free to strike the ball following a corner. This led to another corner, but did not threaten another goal. However, there was a huge chance in the 90th minute. Jackson Irvine fired narrowly wide after a cross from the right. “Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to make it a comfortable win. That was slightly disappointing today,” said Schuster after the final whistle.

The visitors dominated the six minutes of injury time and threw everything forwards, but they were not able to stop Günter from adding a victory to his special afternoon. The fans sung joyously after the game, and SCF went into the international break after claiming their first league win in six matches. According to the head coach, the three points were the most important thing. “The most important thing for us today was to get the result we wanted. The win was vital. We knew that St. Pauli would defend compactly. We played with patience for the most part.”

Photo: Stephan Eckenfels