It had been 22 weeks since the last home win at the Millerntor. The target for the visit of Dynamo Dresden on matchday 20 was thus clear – another three points were to follow last week's victory at Braunschweig. Head coach Ewald Lienen made three changes to the starting lineup, Kyoungrok Choi coming into the side for Mats Møller Dæhli, who was ruled out by a calf strain, along with Daniel Buballa (back from suspension) and Aziz Bouhaddouz (back from illness). Yi-Young Park and Lennart Thy dropped to the bench.

The two sides felt each other out in the opening stages, with the first attacking move of note coming from the visitors. Fabian Müller and Marvin Stefaniak combined on the right, but Stefaniak's ball in found no takers in yellow and black. After a break in the play for treatment to Bernd Nehrig, who was injured in a collision with Marco Hauptmann, Kyoungrok Choi broke down the right, only to be brought down by Hauptmann. Cenk Sahin floated the free-kick in towards Bouhaddouz, but the visitors were able to clear without any problems. And with both sides adopting a cautious approach, chances from open play remained a rarity.

The first flowing move of the game arrived after a quarter of an hour when Jeremy Dudziak, Waldemar Sobota and the lively Choi linked up to feed Johannes Flum, whose final ball failed to reach the intended target. In the 17th minute Flum dispatched another cross into the Dresden box that was eventually cleared. The Boys in Brown slowly began to gain the upper hand and create some initial chances. Lasse Sobiech found Aziz Bouhaddouz with a long ball after 20 minutes, but he was denied by Dresden goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe. Almost immediately Marc Hornschuh had to step in to clear for a corner that was safely gathered by Philip Heerwagen. At the other end the Boys in Brown were awarded a free-kick near the corner of the box. Flum's cross again found no takers, however.

The biggest chance of the game to that point was squandered by Bernd Nehrig on 27 minutes when the visitors failed to clear their lines from another corner. The midfielder charged into the box and directed a shot just over the Dresden crossbar. Two minutes later, however, Kyoungrok Choi went one better. The South Korean latched onto an underhit backpass and pulled the trigger from the edge of the box to send the home crowd into a frenzy. A goal to the good, Ewald Lienen's side were content to sit back and wait for an opportunity to break, as in the 34th minute when Cenk Sahin won possession in midfield, set off on a run and was brought down by Philip Heise, who was promptly shown the yellow card by referee Dennis Aytekin. The free-kick came to nothing, however. Dresden then forced a corner from which Lasse Sobiech and Florian Ballas went down injured after a collision. While the St. Pauli captain was able to continue after treatment, Ballas hobbled off to be replaced by Jannik Müller with 39 minutes gone.

The closing stages of the first half were ushered in by a mistake by the Boys in Brown after they were awarded a free-kick in their own half for a foul on Nehrig. Sobota took it quickly, only to hit the ball straight to an opponent, leaving Nehrig no choice but to make a tactical foul that earned him a booking. Another misunderstanding in the home defence presented the visitors with another corner. Lienen's charges remained alert to the danger, however, and went in at half-time protecting a 1-0 lead.