St. Pauli's Eggestein: Interruption against 96 "disadvantageous"
Johannes Eggestein experienced the riots in the visitors' block at the match between his FC St. Pauli and Hannover 96 as a disadvantage for his team's flow of play. "We were a bit under pressure," said the striker for the Hamburg second-division club on NDR's "Sportclub" on Sunday. "It was a bit of a disadvantage for us that there was an interruption. It might have taken us out of the flow a bit." The two teams drew 0-0 on Friday.
During the match at the Millerntor, an altercation broke out in the visitors' block around the 75th minute of the game. After a male fan was allegedly massively attacked, police officers entered the stands and were subsequently attacked by 96 fans. After the match, there were clashes between home fans and the police. According to police reports on Saturday, at least 15 fans and 17 police officers were injured in the riots. The match was interrupted for around five minutes due to the brutal scenes and then continued.
The 25-year-old Eggestein condemned the incidents as "very unpleasant scenes". "Nobody wants to see that," he added afterwards. Eggestein considers it tricky to intervene as a player in a situation like that: "In a case like that, I think, where it was a very complicated situation, it's difficult as a player to have an opinion or to have an overview and intervene accordingly."
Despite the disruptive interruption caused by the incidents in the Hannover 96 fans' section during the Bundesliga 2 match against FC St. Pauli, Eggestein's team managed to maintain a draw, keeping their scoreline at 0-0. In a later interview, Eggestein mentioned that the interruption might have slightly disrupted their team's flow, but FC St. Pauli's striker recognized Hanover 96's Soccer performance as a source of pressure on their team.
Source: www.dpa.com
