Berlin, Jan 30: Martijn Kaars scored a stoppage-time penalty for St. Pauli to deny Leipzig all three points with a 1-1 draw in their weather-delayed Bundesliga match on Tuesday.Leipzig defender David Raum slipped at an inopportune time as he missed the ball and took down Kaars to concede the spot kick.
Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi got his fingers to the ball but couldn’t keep Kaars’ well-struck effort out, and the home team celebrated as if it had won.
It was St. Pauli’s second consecutive point after the derby draw against Hamburger SV and it lifted it a point above bottom side Heidenheim with 15 rounds to play.
Leipzig still moved to fourth, the last qualification spot for the lucrative Champions League, ahead of Stuttgart on goal difference.
Yan Diomande scored midway through the second half for the Red Bull-backed club, which failed to qualify for any European competition last season.
Also Tuesday, Hoffenheim consolidated third place with a 2-0 win at Werder Bremen despite finishing with 10 men.
Alexander Prass broke the deadlock with a brilliant strike inside the top right corner before the break, and Grischa Promel made it 2-0 early in the second half just after Hoffenheim had Wouter Burger sent off after a VAR check for a dangerous challenge on Cameron Puertas.
Hoffenheim has a three-point lead over Leipzig.
Both games Tuesday had been called off earlier this month because of heavy snowfall, ice and snowdrifts across northern Germany including Hamburg and Bremen.
Before the matches, all four teams lined up behind banners that said “We Remember” to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, held every year on Jan. 27.
It’s the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of the Nazi German death camps.
In the wider context of the Bundesliga season, the dramatic ending at the Millerntor underlined how even a single moment can tilt narratives at both ends of the table, with St. Pauli drawing renewed belief from a point that felt far greater than its numerical value while Leipzig were left to rue a lapse that could carry lasting consequences in a crowded Champions League race. For the promoted hosts, the late equaliser was another small but significant step in a survival battle likely to be defined by grit rather than flair, reinforcing the sense that they are finding resilience at precisely the right moment as the season enters its decisive stretch.