Understandably enough, St. Pauli’s Mathias Pereira Lage was ecstatic about finding the perfect moment to score his first Bundesliga goal. The Portuguese attacker’s Bundesliga club are riding high after two consecutive league wins pull them above the relegation pack. Pereira Lage was quick to credit resurgent Greek wingback Manolis Saliakas for his inaugural Kiezkicker tally.
Last week against relegation rivals Werder Bremen, it was Japanese midfielder Joel Chima Fujita’s turn to open his account for his new German club. Both Pereira Lage and Fujita joined FCSP this past summer and have featured regularly for the “Boys in Brown” over the course of the current campaign. The fact that the pair have collected massive match winning goals, naturally enough, counts as even more important than their previous contributions.
Greek wingback Saliakas – engaged in a heated battle for playing time this season – has been fighting hard for minutes against summer addition Arkadiusz Pyrka since the current campaign kicked off. The 29-year-old often found himself relegated to the bench and has reportedly lodged multiple transfer requests. Lately, head coach Alexander Blessin has accorded him another chance to excellent effect.
After spending seven straight matches unused on the bench, Saliakas has started six straight league fixtures, scored a vital goal in matchday 21’s upset win over Stuttgart, and collected a total of three assists in during his current form surge. An excellent through ball set up Fujita’s goal last week. On Pereira Lage’s goal, Saliakas made it easy for the goal-scorer with a lovely one-touch cross in.
“I’ve worked very hard and waited a long time for this goal,” Pereira Lage noted in the mixed zone. “80 percent of the goal [still] belongs to Manos. I ran into the path of his cross because I know how good his crosses are.“
