St. Pauli beats Augsburg 2-1 to stay unbeaten in Bundesliga, Bremen routs Gladbach 4-0
BERLIN (AP) — Danel Sinani scored late for St. Pauli to beat Augsburg 2-1 and maintain the promoted team’s unbeaten start to the Bundesliga season on Sunday.
The club was already jubilant after beating city rival Hamburger SV 2-0 in a derby in its previous game – the players emerged to find one side of the stadium draped with a banner saying “Hamburg is brown-white” in reference to St. Pauli’s colors – and coach Alexander Blessin named an unchanged lineup.
But Fabian Rieder headed Augsburg into a 16th-minute lead thanks to a fine cross from Han-Noah Massengo.
St. Pauli struggled to respond until just before the break when Cedric Zesiger was penalized for handball in the area. Finn Dahmen saved Andreas Hountondji’s penalty only to see the Benin forward tuck away the rebound.
Augsburg had better chances after the break but Sinani scored in the 78th with the aid of a deflection from the unfortunate Zesiger.
Bremen goal fest on Boniface debut
Victor Boniface made his Werder Bremen debut but it was others who scored as Horst Steffen’s team recorded a 4-0 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Boniface, who joined Bremen from Bayer Leverkusen after a proposed move to AC Milan broke down, started on the substitutes’ bench and made his entry in the 75th minute with Bremen already three goals up.
The Nigeria forward set up fellow substitute Justin Njinmah for the visitors’ fourth goal six minutes later, prompting an exodus of disappointed Gladbach fans from the stadium.
Samuel Mbangula also scored – and set up another goal and won a penalty – in a man-of-the-match performance.
It’s Bremen’s first league win of the season and it left Gladbach with just one point from three games without scoring a goal.
Gio Reyna started for his Gladbach debut following the American’s transfer from Borussia Dortmund.
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By CIARÁN FAHEY
AP Sports Writer
