Despite being winless in six league games, St. Pauli began with a great deal of purpose. Daniel Sinani proved a particular threat – albeit to a very finite extent, as he firstly opted to attempt a pass back when through on goal, only for Maximilian Mittelstadt to block him.
Sinani also grossly underhit a curling effort to the far post, ensuring an easy catch for Alexander Nubel. And in between those chances, Mittelstadt almost turned provider, with a ball to the back post seeing Chris Fuhrich close in and force a one-handed stop from Nikola Vasilj.
St. Pauli reacted with ruthless aggression, and on the half-hour mark, Sinani was once more a tricky customer, playing a ball to the far post that Martijn Kaars missed, before a double block from Josha Vagnoman to deny shots from a lurking Arkadiusz Pyrka.
But the Polish defender would play a role in giving St. Pauli a deserved lead just a minute later, when Sinani cunningly allowed a pass from the left flank to go through his legs, and a bamboozled Stuttgart backline was powerless to stop Manolis Saliakas from emphatically opening his account for the season, as he hit a rocket into the top-right corner of Nübel’s net.
The Swabians had been second best up to half-time, but with five wins across their previous six away matches – and a tally of 16 goals from them – St. Pauli knew that they needed a bigger cushion to pull off one of the season’s biggest shocks.
And after withstanding pressure from Stuttgart early in the second half’s opening 10 minutes, they did just that. Saliakas once again played a role, pressurising Fuhrich on a foray forward, which ended with the latter handling a bouncing ball inside the box.
Intentional or not, a VAR review gave St. Pauli a priceless spot kick, and Sinani extended his lead as the Kiezkicker’s top contributor, rolling the ball calmly into the bottom-right corner as Nubel dived the wrong way.
With seven of St. Pauli’s previous nine Bundesliga matches seeing both teams score, there was still a sense that Stuttgart could make a game of it.
And despite firmly having an off-day, the visitors could have halved the deficit from the restart, though Deniz Undav – so influential in last weekend’s late victory over Freiburg – could only chip a promising effort over the bar.
James Sands then sent a header wide at the other end, as he met an inswinging cross from Sinani. From there, St. Pauli more than held their own, with the dying minutes seeing Nubel thwart Kaars at the near post from point blank range, after he broke into the box.
It wouldn’t be a Stuttgart game without a late goal though, and on 89’, they kept up their 100% record of scoring on the road in league action this term, with a series of passes around the St. Pauli box that ended in a low shot at the near post from Jamie Leweling.
But it was too late for Stuttgart to go from Leweling to levelling, and despite being given six minutes of added time to add to the 13 points they’d previously plundered from 12 goals netted inside the final quarter-hour of Bundesliga matches, they could now lose their top-four berth – a scenario that will become reality if RB Leipzig win in their match at Cologne tomorrow.
Meanwhile, St. Pauli remain 17th in the league, but now sit just three points adrift of definite safety thanks to results elsewhere.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Daniel Sinani (St. Pauli)