FC St. Pauli defeat VfL Wolfsburg 1-0 with late deflected goal by Joel Fujita

Late decider at Millerntor

FC St. Pauli secured their first win of the 2. Bundesliga season with a 1-0 victory over VfL Wolfsburg on matchday five. A sold-out crowd of 29,546 spectators attended the fixture at Millerntor-Stadion on Friday evening. Japanese midfielder Joel Chima Fujita scored the decisive goal in the 88th minute. His shot took a deflection off Wolfsburg defender Jonas Adjetey, leaving goalkeeper Jakub Zielinski unable to keep the ball out of the net. The result ended a 14-match competitive winless streak for the Hamburg club across all competitions.

First-half opportunities and personnel shortages

Both teams entered the match without several regular starters due to illness and injury. St. Pauli head coach Marcel Rapp had to adjust his defense without Tomoya Ando, absent for private reasons, and Marcus Mathisen, who was ill, while playmaker Branimir Hrgota missed out with an injury. Wolfsburg manager Tobias Strobl operated without the injured Elvis Rexhbecaj and the ill forward Robert Glatzel. Despite the missing players, the opening period produced frequent attacking chances on both ends of the pitch. Wolfsburg winger Fabian Reese hit the crossbar with a free kick in the fifth minute. St. Pauli responded with an effort from Connor Metcalfe and a header from Abdoulie Ceesay, both stopped by Zielinski. Ben Voll prevented a Wolfsburg lead by stopping Reese in a one-on-one encounter in the 20th minute, while Ceesay hit the side netting after Zielinski slipped on the wet turf in the 27th minute.

Second-half momentum and the decisive strike

Play continued with high intensity after the interval as both sides sought the opening goal. Wolfsburg defender Kilian Fischer missed the target from the edge of the penalty area in the 54th minute following a set-piece sequence. St. Pauli countered five minutes later when Fujita sent a shot wide, followed immediately by Metcalfe striking the crossbar in the 60th minute. Wolfsburg created further offensive spells late in the match, but Voll and the home defense repelled their advances. The decisive breakthrough arrived with two minutes remaining in regulation time, when Fujita found space and fired toward the net. Adjetey attempted a clearance with his head, but redirected the ball past Zielinski into the bottom corner.

League standings and historical records

The defeat was Wolfsburg's first league loss of the campaign and their first in the second tier since March 1997, when they lost 0-4 against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. The outcome leaves Wolfsburg in fifth place with eight points from five fixtures. They now trail league leaders 1. FC Nürnberg, who hold 13 points, and second-placed Hertha BSC with 12 points. For St. Pauli, the victory was their first competitive triumph since defeating TSG Hoffenheim 1-0 on February 28 in the top flight. The result also served as a reversal of the previous meeting between the two sides on May 16, when Wolfsburg won 3-1 in the final round of the Bundesliga before both clubs suffered relegation.