04/05/26 01:05:00
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04/05 13:03 CDT Bosnia keeper Nikola Vasilj's saves help St. Pauli hold on for
a point against Union Berlin
Bosnia keeper Nikola Vasilj's saves help St. Pauli hold on for a point against
Union Berlin
BERLIN (AP) --- More goalkeeping heroics from Bosnia-Herzegovina's World Cup
qualification star Nikola Vasilj meant St. Pauli held on for a 1-1 draw with
Union Berlin on Sunday as it struggles to avoid relegation from the Bundesliga.
In his first game since his saves helped see the Bosnian team past Italy in the
World Cup qualifying playoffs, Vasilj faced eight shots on target and stood out
with a double save, though it came after he'd given the ball away. The only one
that went in was a towering header from Union striker Andrej Ilic at a corner.
St. Pauli had earlier taken the lead when Mathias Pereira Lage delivered a
fierce long-distance volley to open the scoring, and created little after that.
St. Pauli held on for the final three minutes with 10 men after its Australian
captain Jackson Irvine was sent off for two yellow cards in the space of eight
minutes, both for late tackles.
Even a point for St. Pauli was bad news for Wolfsburg, which is on course for
an historic first relegation from the Bundesliga after losing 6-3 to Bayer
Leverkusen on Saturday. A fixture in the Bundesliga since 1997, Wolfsburg is
now four points adrift of any chance of safety.
The bottom two teams, Wolfsburg and Heidenheim, are relegated directly to the
second division. The team in 16th, currently St. Pauli, goes into a two-leg
playoff against the third-place team from the second tier.
Union stays 10th.
Cologne holds Frankfurt to 2-2 draw
Cologne interim coach Ren Wagner oversaw a comeback to salvage a point in his
first game but couldn't end the team's winless run, now at eight Bundesliga
games.
Three goals in four minutes lit up the game, but Cologne's Alessio
Castro-Montes had the last word in a 2-2 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt.
Frankfurt seemed in full control after Jonathan Burkardt opened the scoring in
the 66th and his teammate Arnaud Kalimuendo added a second in the 69th, but
Jakub Kaminski scored a smart solo goal seconds after the game resumed to
revive Cologne.
Straight after coming off the bench, Castro-Montes bundled the ball into the
net from close range to level the score in the 83rd.
The draw is more helpful to 15th-place Cologne, which ends the day having
preserved a two-point gap to St. Pauli. Seventh-place Frankfurt is 10 points
off Bayer Leverkusen in sixth.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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