Markus Kauczinski's side travelled to Düsseldorf having taken seven points from their last three matches. They were without captain Bernd Nehrig, however, who was serving a one-match ban. Johannes Flum took his place in central midfield. The St. Pauli coach also made a change in attack, preferring Jan-Marc Schneider to Sami Allagui alongside Aziz Bouhaddouz.

The Brown-and-Whites made a bright, focused start on a difficult playing surface but were caught cold in the ninth minute when Andre Hoffmann moved into the space created by Marcel Sobottka from a corner to bundle the ball over the line with his hip. Buoyed by the lead, the home side took control of the proceedings. Florian Neuhaus immediately tried his luck from distance, but Robin Himmelmann was more than equal to the test.

Jeremy Dudziak worked his side's first opening after 17 minutes, skipping down the middle past several defenders, only to drag his shot wide. Further half-chances for Dudziak and Aziz Bouhaddouz were to follow, and while they posed no real threat for Raphael Wolf's goal, they did provide evidence that the Boys in Brown were beginning to escape the home side's stranglehold. Their biggest chance to level the scores to that point arrived on 35 minutes. Waldemar Sobota delivered a perfect cross in to Christopher Avevor in the Fortuna goal area, but the central defender was unable to make a clean contact and the ball flew wide of the post.

The Boys in Brown came even closer to an equaliser in first-half time added on when Wolf's attempted clearance hit the head of Bouhaddouz and rolled back towards the empty net, only to strike the post. Moments later Dudziak found Bouhaddouz in the box. The Moroccan controlled the ball brilliantly but couldn't get a proper contact on the shot and his effort went wide.