St. Pauli head coach Alexander Blessin has apologized for insulting Bundesliga match official Florian Badstübner following an extremely stressful league loss on Saturday afternoon. Blessin’s Kiezkicker were leading visiting Freiburg 1-0 until two goals from former striker Igor Matanovic flipped the result. Shortly after Matanovic scored the 1-2 in the 78th-minute, Blessin was booked for arguing with the referee.
St. Pauli frustrated by the result
Relegation-threatened St. Pauli squandered a glorious chance to climb off the promotion-relegation playoff spot. Wolfsburg’s loss this weekend meant that Blessin’s team could have gone six full points clear of the second automatic relegation place heading into the March international break. Moreover, a home win over Freiburg, would have pushed Köln (who sacked their head coach this weekend) down into St. Pauli’s place.
Advertisement
Speaking to German broadcaster DAZN after the full-time whistle, Blessin griped that “the reason we lost today was because we were playing against 12 men [including the ref].“, also adding “if he [Badstübner] smirks in my direction whilst presenting the yellow card, I find that disrespectful.” Blessin walked it all back at the press conference.
Blessin’s explanation and apology
“We could have defended the two goals better,” Blessin remarked in his opening statement. “I must say that it was frustrating when so many 50-50 challenges went against us. But let me probe deeply and take responsibility for us. We could have defended better. Maybe [like last week], we needed to employ the tactical foul. Small things, some unrelated to the officiating, tipped this game. That hurts immensely.”
“My statements made to DAZN simply weren’t smart,” Blessin noted in response to a later question about his post match interview. “Honestly, it all came out of emotion. There’s so much at stake here. I deserved the yellow card. I didn’t like the smirk, but that’s not really something that one can use an excuse.“
GGFN | Peter Weis
Read the full article here