St Pauli's match against Schalke on Friday night had to be abandoned with just two minutes left to play following crowd trouble.
St Pauli versus Schalke not completed due to crowd trouble
St Pauli's match against Schalke on Friday night had to be abandoned with just two minutes left to play following crowd trouble.
Visiting team Schalke were leading 2-0 at the time in a game that had seen St Pauli reduced to nine men following two second-half dismissals.
But officials had to bring proceedings to a premature end due to disturbances inside the Millerntor Stadion following a disallowed St Pauli goal.
The assistant referee who had made the decision was struck by a missile from the crowd, believed to be a plastic cup, and the game was immediately stopped due to safety concerns with the players taken off the pitch.
Spanish veteran Raul had opened the scoring after 26 minutes in Ralf Rangnick's first match in charge of Schalke.
Julian Draxler doubled their advantage on 67 minutes and St Pauli's task became much harder moments later when Jan-Philipp Kalla was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Fin Bartels was then shown a straight red card in the 79th minute, before the ugly scenes late on.
Unacceptable
"Such scenes are unacceptable. These things should not happen in stadiums. I can only apologise to the assistant in the name of St Pauli," St Pauli coach Holger Stanislawski told reporters.
The result of the match could stand, however, meaning St Pauli would be in deeper relegation trouble following a sixth successive loss, while Schalke would remain tenth.
Referee Deniz Aytekin said it was now up to the German football federation (DFB) and its sports courts to decide on the matter in the coming days.
"We cannot be punished for this tonight. We were 2-0 up just before the end," said Schalke sports director Horst Heldt.
