Eric Smith on how to stop Harry Kane when St. Pauli meet Bayern Munich

Eric Smith has been one of St. Pauli’s shining stars since their return to the Bundesliga, but will the Sweden centre-back be able to stop Harry Kane on Saturday?

St. Pauli welcome Bayern to the Millerntor with a respectable two wins and two draws from their nine games so far, but the record champions remain out in front, leading the table with 15 more points than their hosts.

Smith knows he has his work cut out against Kane and Co., but he has adjusted well to life in the German top-flight. bundesliga.com sat down with Smith to get his thoughts on Saturday’s game and much more besides…

Smith: “Start of the season was not great. Obviously, we knew that it was going to be a step up from last season, but I think slowly we are getting somewhere near to understanding to what is needed from us to get points in this league. But, I think we still have a lot of things we need to get better on, but like you said, we managed to win at least two games. Both of them away from home, which is not very easy, so we should be super proud about that. But then, I think a common goal of us is to get even more points at home because we have a huge support when we play at home and I think normally we are very hard to beat there. So, I think that is something we really need to look into and try to get better and to get even harder to beat at home and to score some goals there as well.”

Smith: “I think the punishment when you make a mistake. That is probably the biggest difference because when we make a mistake here they tend to score goals. You can get away a little bit more with that in the second league, but the quality of the players in the first league is obviously a little bit better in those situations. So, I think that is the hardest lesson we have been taught so far. I would say the tempo is also a little bit quicker but the main reason or the main difference I would say is how you get punished when you make mistakes.”

Smith: “The most emotional moment was probably when I got so bluff against Osnabrück. Me and Fabi (Fabian Hürzeler) had a little bit of an anger issue, but I would say after that – thinking back, when we finished the game in Wiesbaden, being 1-0 down and we were playing against a team that really needed to win and we were able to climb back up in that game and get the win and to be able to finish first in the league is something I really look back to and think ‘wow, that was really strong from us’. It is something I take great pride in, that our group was able to achieve.”

Smith: “I think a lot. When you are a football club you always want to compete against the best teams in the world. I think we have the opportunity to do that this year and hopefully we can do that in a lot of years to come, but obviously the first year is always the hardest. We are really trying hard to stay here for our fans and for this whole organisation to grow and to get bigger in every direction.”

Smith: “Unbelievable. That is the word I would describe them as. They support us in whatever happens, as long as we put our hearts out there they will always support us, no matter the result. So, nothing but praise to them. You feel that support every time we play at home, every time we play away we have a full away stand. I am beyond surprised at the moment, but I think it is unbelievable. You can’t ask for anything else. So, they are unbelievable in all kinds of ways.”

Smith: “I think it is – like you said, our fans is obviously that gets people to see ‘wow, they have a big, big support’ and like you said, worldwide as well. I think it is obviously also what the club stands for in terms of politics and where our club sees human rights and everything. So, I think how open St. Pauli is with this and highlighting the problems and the solutions in these case that makes us so different than other clubs.”

Smith: “Of course, it is unique. When I first came here, I didn’t really realise it because it was during corona. I wasn’t really able to see that and you didn’t see that many people walking around the stadium. I think for me it is mostly two years ago when I started to realise how big the support and everything around the stadium is. How different it is from other places. Personally, I think it is super cool that you are able to have a very big stadium in the middle of something like that. I think it is really cool and it is also very nice for our fans to be able to be in the city centre and still be that close to our arena. To be able to walk there and it is easy to get to the arena and see everything. It is very cool.”