Scoring an 89th minute winner is enough to cause some wild celebrations. But Anthony Modeste of Hoffenheim was also out for revenge for the famous “phantom goal” by Stefan Kiessling and Leverkusen from earlier this season, so provided his own take on the incident with his celebration.
Hoffenheim, in their push to stay out of relegation trouble, beat Leverkusen 3-2, something of payback to that 2-1 loss back in October, which was partially due to Kiessling scoring a header that actually penetrated from outside the goal through a faulty net. When Modesta scored his 89th minute winner, he couldn’t help himself but run over to the net and make it look like he’s checking if it’s OK or not, to see if the ball went through cleanly or was it another “phantom goal.”
With the loss, Leverkusen continue to slide away from the top two and find themselves in danger of losing their Champions League spot if things continue like this, currently at fourth but barely above Gladbach, Wolfsburg and Mainz.
There are no European dreams for Hoffenheim this season, but they’ve avoided relegation for another year, currently placed 10th, nine points above 16th (which leads to relegation battles) with only eight matches left to play.