St Pauli 2-0 Ingolstadt

Two fantastic strikes from distance by Fabian Boll gave St Pauli a well deserved 2-0 win to start the season.

We played a 4-5-1/4-3-3 of sorts with Boll as the holding midfield and Fin Bartels and Florian Bruns working the wings. Deniz Naki and Max Kruse were fluid in the midfield, making diagonal runs and finding space and often Naki was the furtherest man forward on the left wing rather than Bruns.

Naki, who was lively all match, had the first chance for us with a strike from outside the box that went over. Unfortunately those type of wasted opportunities became a regular thing from Naki and he probably could of had a double himself if he could just hit the target.

But he wasn't the only one who struggled to find the target in the first half and Kruse also took a shot that went wide after 20 minutes. That first section of the match went well. We kept the ball well, tried to pass to feet and we were solid at the back. Lasse Sobiech was brilliant and made three or four top interceptions/tackles in just the opening 15 minutes alone.

The left side was particularly strong for us with Bruns and Naki causing havoc, and Jan-Philipp Kalla overlapping to help keep that side of the field dominant. Kruse was pretty fluid in the midfield and often found himself down the left as well.

The problem in the scoreless first half, though, was that Charles Takyi looked a little troubled up front when he tried to hold the ball. He was out-muscled and lost possession far too often. It was probably the difference between going into the break a goal up and going in level. He should have done much better on the stroke of half time when his shot from a superb position inside the area was hesitant, allowing a defender to get across and deflect it out for a corner.

But at the other end of the field, there was a positive factor which kept the scores level at the break. Philip Tschauner on debut was fantastic and he pulled off three world class saves. The first came through his agility to save a shot destined for the top corner right on the stroke of half time as he jumped well to palm the ball out. The second was just on the other side of the break as he reacted quick to tip a ferocious shot over and the third was his speed to get down low and stop a shot heading to the bottom far corner.

The second half continued our good performance. Boll's first goal from a free kick was well deserved and his second, a cracking strike from 25 yards out into the top corner, was the icing on the cake.

Bartels and Boll showed class when they were on the ball, and while they didn't break the defence like Naki, they were instrumental. The right side wasn't as active as the left, though, where Bruns also had a top game with Kruse lending a very valuable helping hand.

Mahir Saglik didn't do much of note when he came on for his debut, but he wasn't bad and helped us hold the ball a bit better up front. Fabio Morena was good when he came on for Takyi at 2-0 up and added defensive stability to help us see the game out.

The fans were excellent and the atmosphere sounded great despite the crowd of just 10,000 up in Lubeck. A great start to the season, and even though everything may not be complete the signs are positive ahead of our big test against Eintracht Frankfurt.