Borussia Dortmund celebrated a narrow home win against FC St. Pauli – Serhou Guirassy scored the winning goal after St. Pauli equalized late on.

BVB moved up to fourth place in the table with the 2-1 (1-0) win and now has 13 points from seven games. FC St. Pauli remains in the relegation zone with four points.

Ramy Bensebaini gave Dortmund the lead (43′). Eric Smith equalized for St. Pauli (78th), Guirassy scored the winning goal for BVB (83rd), who play in the Champions League at Real Madrid on Tuesday.

Bensebaini secures a deserved lead for Dortmund

Guirassy initially had the chance to give BVB the lead when Julian Brandt cleared him well, but goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj saved with his right foot (7th). On the other side, St. Pauli’s Oladapo Afolayan had a chance on the right in the penalty area, but his brief hesitation prevented Dortmund’s Bensebaini from scoring with a tackle (17th). In the 30th minute, Morgan Guilavogui hit Dortmund’s goal from the left after a free kick from Eric Smith – but the video assistant found Guilavogui just offside.

A half-field cross then gave Dortmund the lead: Pascal Groß brought the ball from the right into the penalty area, where Bensebaini headed from eleven meters and hit the right corner (44th). A little later, Brandt had the chance to make it 2-0, but he headed over the goal. At the end of the first half, BVB took the deserved lead.

BVB superior, St. Pauli equalizes – but Dortmund responds

The second half started with a delay because the referee team led by Matthias Jöllenbeck had problems with the radios. Dortmund remained superior and had 90 percent possession of the ball. In the 64th minute, Guirassy was again denied by goalkeeper Vasilj, a few seconds later Jamie Gittens played the ball sharply from the left inwards, where Guirassy and Donyell Malen narrowly missed the ball.

St. Pauli got a surprising equalizer when Smith scored with a powerful long-range shot from 30 meters (78′). BVB protested because Afolayan was possibly in the line of sight of goalkeeper Gregor Kobel, but the referee team considered Afolayan’s offside position to be inactive.

But BVB still found the decisive reaction. In the 83rd minute, Serhou Guirassy headed Dortmund to victory after Gittens played past Adam Dzwigala on the left and then crossed. Dzwigala missed a great chance for Hamburg to equalize again in stoppage time.

Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin disappeared straight into the catacombs after the final whistle. “I had to control myself because I was angry.”he said on the sports show microphone. But he didn’t want to say what exactly.

Dortmund now first in Madrid, then in Augsburg – St. Pauli against Wolfsburg

BVB now have three away games in a row: After the Champions League game at Real Madrid, Dortmund plays at FC Augsburg on Saturday (3:30 p.m.) and then has to face VfL Wolfsburg in the DFB Cup (Tuesday, 8:45 p.m.).

St. Pauli welcomes VfL Wolfsburg next weekend (3:30 p.m.) and then plays in the cup on Tuesday (6 p.m.) at RB Leipzig.