Club known for their underdog image and leftwing fanbase go into Friday’s clash with city rivals as 2. Bundesliga pace-setters
When Hamburger SV and St Pauli last met, at the Volksparkstadion in April, their roles were reversed. HSV were favourites for promotion and their opponents were breathing down their necks. St Pauli had been dubbed “HSV-Jäger” (“HSV-hunters”) by the German press, having turned around their form so spectacularly that they had gone from relegation candidates to six points behind their derby rivals in third. A win would have closed the gap to three and HSV, wild-eyed and exhausted, might well have been ensnared.
In the end, though, the hunter became the hunted. Manolis Saliakas, St Pauli’s galloping wing-back, opened the scoring before wheeling away with his hands cupped behind his ears, but HSV rattled in three goals either side of half-time and, though the visitors rallied late on, it ended 4-3. When Jonas David, now on loan at Hansa Rostock, thundered in the equaliser from 25 yards, Tim Walter, the HSV coach, could not contain his relief, leaping on to the pitch along with most of his coaching staff and substitutes. At full-time, wreathed in a thick fog from the flares and smoke bombs in the stands, he and his team jumped to the rat-a-tat of the ultras’ drums and soaked in the adulation of more than 50,000 fans bathed in blue.