In gameweek two of the new 2. Bundesliga season, St. Pauli will look to make it two wins on the spin when they travel to the HDI Arena where Hannover 96 are looking for their first victory of the season.
After finishing fifth last season, St. Pauli came into this one looking to build on their 16 wins, nine draws and nine defeats of last season.
Die #H96-Mannschaft schwitzt zweimal auf dem Trainingsplatz, zwei üben individuell, und #EDDIsRudel sucht Einlaufkinder - alles dazu lest Ihr in unseren Kurznachrichten. ⤵️#NiemalsAllein ⚫️⚪️💚https://t.co/KPfcKQhrv3— Hannover 96 (@Hannover96) July 19, 2022
Die #H96-Mannschaft schwitzt zweimal auf dem Trainingsplatz, zwei üben individuell, und #EDDIsRudel sucht Einlaufkinder - alles dazu lest Ihr in unseren Kurznachrichten. ⤵️#NiemalsAllein ⚫️⚪️💚https://t.co/KPfcKQhrv3
They were also the fourth-best defensive side last year with 46 goals conceded, while they were also the fourth-best scorers too with 61 goals.
Fast forward to this campaign, and St. Pauli are coming off the back of a fantastic victory on home soil over Nurnberg.
Jackson Irvine got the ball rolling for the home side that day, before Leart Paqarada scored from the penalty spot, as Lukas Daschner also scored a goal.
This gave the fifth-placed side of last season the perfect start to this new campaign with a 3-0 lead before half time.
However, two goals from Nurnberg in the second half brought the game to 3-2, although St. Pauli had enough to hand on despite the away side looking much the better team in the second 45.
Importantly for St. Pauli, it did also end a winless run of two games where they failed to score a goal in both games in preseason.
Holstein Keil first beat them 2-0, before Silkeborg did to them too. Fortuna Dusseldorf were the last victory for the 2. Bundesliga side prior to winning on the opening day, as they beat them 2-0.
It does also mean over 2.5 goals has been a feature in all of St. Pauli’s last five games, and against a Hannover side in desperate need to get some points on the board early on, this could be another factor in the game.
Hannover travelled to Kaiserslautern on the opening day, and despite seeing 66% of the ball, the away side lost 2-1 when they conceded a goal in the 92nd minute.
Havard Nielsen scored that day for Hannover in the 80th minute, but once again, their attacking flow did not seem to be there.
Hannover finished 11th last season too, registering just 11 wins along the way and losing 14 times with a record of 35 goals scored and 49 let in their own goal. It does now mean this is also their fifth consecutive season in the second tier of German football.
Forebet predicts a win for St. Pauli here and for the game to see under 2.5 goals.