FC St. Pauli - Union Berlin

St. Pauli to make home advantage count

TEAM NEWS

St. Pauli’s Marc Hornschuh, Waldemar Sobota, Clemens Schoppenhauer, Svend Brodersen, Bernd Nehrig, Johannes Flum and Luca-Milan Zander are still absent but are all working on their comebacks. Additional they have to replace suspended Jeremy Dudziak who saw his fifth yellow card against Aue.

Union Berlin are missing the injured Sebastian Polter, Michael Parensen, Akaki Gogia and Fabian Schonheim.

St. Pauli

Suspended: Jeremy Dudziak

Doubtful: None

Injured/unavailable: Marc Hornschuh (back), Waldemar Sobota (heel), Clemens Schoppenhauer (shoulder), Bernd Nehrig (calf), Luca-Milan Zander (thigh); Svend Brodersen, Johannes Flum (Achilles)

Union Berlin

Suspended: None

Doubtful: None

Injured/unavailable: Fabian Schonheim (knee), Sebastian Polter (Achilles), Michael Parensen (unspecified), Akaki Gogia (ligaments)

MATCH PREVIEW

MAIN PREDICTION: HOME WIN

Not a single win in their last five 2. Bundesliga fixtures has left St. Pauli in a precarious position in the table. They have only managed three victories since the beginning of the year and lost their most recent fixture against in-form Aue 2-1 last Saturday. Since beating Holstein Kiel in February, St. Pauli have lost two and drawn three and they are now in 15^thwith only a three-point lead over Heidenheim in the relegation playoff spot.

Union Berlin are in a dangerous position after playing out a 0-0 draw at Alte Forsterei against Duisburg last time out. They have been on a poor run of form in 2018, having claimed only two wins in 11 matches. Having not won in nearly two months, Union are under pressure – like their opponents, only three points separates them from the dreaded bottom three, but on paper, they should be capable of staying in the second tier.

Neither team are in great form, but St. Pauli should be able to use their home advantage to get past sorry Union Berlin. I’ll be backing a home victory this Saturday.

SECOND PREDICTION: CORRECT SCORE – 2-1

Two of St. Pauli’s last three home victories against Union Berlin have come by a one-goal margin, via 2-1 scorelines. They have conceded one on average in their last four games, but have also been finding the net regularly of late. I’ll back them to win this clash 2-1 too.

HEAD TO HEAD

St. Pauli have picked up just one win in their last seven meetings against Union Berlin but they have the edge at home with four wins, three draws and one defeat.