St. Pauli soaring after record-breaking win

Having already held Borussia Dortmund and beaten city rivals Hamburg in their opening two encounters, Alexander Blessin’s side recovered from Fabian Rieder’s early opener to claim a first top-flight victory over Augsburg on Sunday afternoon.

It is the first time St. Pauli have started a Bundesliga season without losing any of their first three games.

Last term – their first in Germany’s top division in 14 years – the Kiezkicker began the campaign with three straight defeats. Fast forward 12 months and only Bayern Munich, Dortmund and fellow surprise package Cologne sit above them in the embryonic Bundesliga table.

“It’s gone much better than last season,” defender Eric Smith told the club’s official website after Sunday’s 2-1 triumph. “It wasn’t our best performance today, but it was enough for three points.

“Going behind was a wake-up call for us. With the confidence we have, we put in an excellent performance in the second half and deserved to win.”

Danel Sinani, scorer of St. Pauli’s 77th-minute winner from a free-kick, added: “We proved what a good team we are today. We showed good mentality after going behind and came back with the support of our fans.”

St. Pauli have always been a tough nut to crack under former Union Saint-Gilloise boss Blessin.

Despite finishing the 2024/25 campaign just three points clear of the Bundesliga’s bottom three, they conceded only 41 goals in their 34 league matches – the second-best defensive record behind champions Bayern Munich.

They also covered more ground than any other side last term, averaging over 120 kilometres per match.

Crucially, however, they appear to have added some much-needed firepower to their defensive discipline this season.

Having ended 2024/25 on a paltry 28 top-flight goals – by far the worst tally in the division – they have already found the net on seven occasions this term, joining Bayern and Dortmund as the only three teams to score at least twice in every game so far.

“It was fun watching the lads play today,” Blessin said after the final whistle on Sunday. “After falling behind, we settled into the game. We pressed the ball very well, found space and made use of it.”

Watch: St. Pauli fans celebrate Bundesliga survival last season

Key to St. Pauli’s new-found attacking prowess has been Andréas Hountondji, who joined the club in the summer on a season-long loan deal from English Premier League club Burnley.

His equaliser against Augsburg – a calm, close-range finish on the rebound after Finn Dahmen had saved his penalty – makes him the first St. Pauli player to score in each of their first three games of a Bundesliga season.

After opening his and St. Pauli’s 2025/26 account with a well-placed header against Dortmund, Hountondji wrapped up the Kiezkicker's win at Hamburg six days later, rounding goalkeeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes and finding the bottom corner from a tight angle.

Hountondji spent the second half of a frustrating 2024/25 season on loan at Belgian side Standard Liège, but the Benin frontman appears to be rediscovering the type of form that yielded 14 goals in 34 league appearances for Ligue 2 side Rodez – a club record in France’s second tier – two seasons ago.

“Scoring again was a great feeling,” Hountondji said after extending his prolific run against Augsburg. “We didn’t start well but showed great mentality to win the game.”

The 23-year-old also allayed fears about the severity of an injury that forced him to sit out the second half of Sunday’s win. “I was carrying a slight knock and stayed in the dressing room,” he explained. “We didn’t want to take any risks.”

Could Blessin already have half an eye on next weekend’s trip to 2023/24 Bundesliga runners-up and current DFB Cup holders VfB Stuttgart?

Given his team’s scintillating start, another impressive result at the MHP Arena would come as no great surprise.