Not just the best goal of the night in terms of aesthetics in the Champions League, but an injury time winner to boot, as Jans Hegeler scores a wonderful and surprising free kick to give Bayer Leverkusen a dramatic 2-1 win over Real Sociedad.
With the win, Leverkusen move to third in group A, one point behind Manchester United and Shakhtar Donetsk, while leaving Sociedad, a team that should have been able to put up more of a fight in the group’s qualification race.
Leverkusen led through a Simon Rolfes goal at the end of the first half, but Carlos Vela made the most from his penalty kick miss a few minutes after the start of the second half, scoring off the rebound, ruining Leno’s rare moment of heroism between the posts.
Hegeler, who entered the match only seven minutes earlier and has rarely seen some playing time this season, usually coming off the bench, surprised the badly positioned Claudio Bravo (who should have been sent off earlier in the match) with a stunning free kick to grab the dramatic win.