BLBL2VBL
menu
The ball reached the back of the net through the side-netting, but Stefan Kießling's 'phantom' goal stood nonetheless
The ball reached the back of the net through the side-netting, but Stefan Kießling's 'phantom' goal stood nonetheless

Oddest moment of the season so far

xwhatsappmailcopy-link

Munich - 's header did not go in. Almost everybody saw it. Everybody, that is, apart from referee Felix Brych and the Bayer 04 Leverkusen striker.

Phantom goal

What was not a goal actually became one as Leverkusen beat 1899 Hoffenheim 2-1 on Matchday 9 thanks in part to the strangest moment of the Bundesliga season so far, and one of the weirdest in the league's history.

A hole in the side-netting, barely big enough to let a football through, and not spotted by anybody prior to the first half or the second half, was the culprit of an incident which had the football world talking about a 'phantom' goal.

Discussion flared: was it right to award the goal and should the game have been replayed? Leverkusen's sporting director Rudi Völler offered to repeat the final 20 minutes of the match (from the moment the 'goal' was scored), as if nothing had happened, and with his side 1-0 to the good thanks to Sidney Sam's earlier goal. In the end, though, the result stood, Leverkusen got the points and the Bundesliga was enriched by its latest episode of peculiarity.

Player | Surprise package | Rookie | Striker | Coach | Goalkeeper | Transfers | Stopgap

Find out what some of the key people had to say about Kießling's 'phantom' goal on the official Bundesliga YouTube channel: