What Michael Ballack said after Nathan Tella’s 25-second goal in Leverkusen win over Dortmund

Former Chelsea star, Michael Ballack, praised Nathan Tella’s lightning-fast 25-second goal in Bayer Leverkusen’s thrilling victory over Borussia Dortmund, Soccernet.ng reports.

The Nigeria international opened the scoring for Bayer Leverkusen in their 3-2 victory over Nuri Sahin’s side in under 30 seconds at Signal Iduna Park.

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Robert Andrich delivered a header to Tella, who fired a powerful shot from the edge of the box past goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.

Watch the video here:

Reacting to the goal, the former German international lauded Tella’s quick thinking and sharp finishing which sets the tone early for victory.

“The whole team moved up. The ball was intercepted and Tella didn’t hesitate. An outstanding finish, with full confidence into the near corner. Unstoppable,” Ballack said, as quoted by Sports1.

Borussia Dortmund – Bayer 04 Leverkusen, 16. Spieltag, Signal Iduna Park, Michal Ballack / DFB / DFL [Photo credit/ X]
The goal marks Tella’s first goal of the 2024-25 season and an end to his goal drought after 11 games in the domestic league. This means the Nigerian has scored just one goal in 12 league games and tallied two goals in 21 games for the Bay Arena outfits.

The team played without Victor Boniface, who is still recovering from injury. However, Tella and the rest of the squad rose to the occasion, narrowing the gap between themselves (35 points) and Bayern Munich (36 points) at the top of the Bundesliga table.

Bundesliga 16 Matchday Borussia Dortmund Bayer 04 Leverkusen on 10 01 2025 at Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund Goal celebration to 0 1 by Nathan Tella Leverkusen [Photo credit/ X]
Though Tella has not been in his best form this season, he will be hoping to maintain this momentum and secure a return to the Super Eagles setup since their international friendlies against Ghana and Mali in March 2024.

This post was last modified on January 11, 2025 5:59 am

Ayomide Oguntimehin

Ayomide Oguntimehin is a CAF-accredited sports journalist and Editor at Soccernet.ng, with a proven track record in conducting interviews with Super Eagles stars such as William Troost-Ekong, Taiwo Awoniyi, Bright Osayi-Samuel, Ademola Lookman, and many others. He has also made a significant impact in breaking transfer news stories. Grounded in video editing, video journalism, social media management, and content strategy, Ayomide brings a wealth of expertise to his work.

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