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 René 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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