Christoph Freund notes the “really special atmosphere” of Bayern Munich’s reunion with St Pauli, 13 years in the making

Bayern Munich and St Pauli share a storied history, such as the story of Pauli beating Bayern shortly after the latter’s Club World Cup victory and seeing the resulting nickname of Weltpokalsiegerbesieger (victor over Club World Cup winners) stick for the next two decades. Still, this history is one that has left both sets of fans affable towards one another.

So when the two teams were finally set to play against each other after over 13 years, the fans had something special prepared, which sporting director Christoph Freund noticed:

“There was a really special atmosphere in the stadium today, even before the game with the tifos from both sets of fans,” Freund commented, via FCBayern.com. “There aren’t many nicer places to play a game of football – you have to enjoy that.”

But at the end of the day, despite the niceties, Bayern’s number one priority remained the three points: “We really wanted to go into the international break with a victory. We’ve had a lot of games and intense weeks. It wasn’t easy today, they were well prepared for us, but we controlled the match and didn’t give anything away, even though we didn’t create as many chances. In the end it’s a deserved win.”