Did Nathan Tella shade Erik Ten Hag? What Super Eagles star said after Leverkusen’s victory

One-time Bundesliga winners Bayer 04 Leverkusen secured a win against Eintracht Frankfurt last night in the most dramatic fashion, Soccernet.ng reports.

Two free-kick goals from Alejandro Grimaldo and a goal before half-time from Patrick Schick cancelled out Can Uzun's strike, but that wasn't all.

Die Werkself finished the game with nine men after Robert Andrich and Equi Fernandez were sent off at different intervals of the game.

Alejandro Grimaldo is one of the best free-kick specialists in the world pic.twitter.com/tMLXdwkme7

— VRed Baller (@VRedBaller) September 13, 2025

Super Eagles winger Nathan Tella played 82 minutes as a right winger at the Bay Arena in the first game of Kasper Hjulmand as Leverkusen's coach after they dismissed Erik Ten Hag during the September International Break.

The former Southampton man has played in every Leverkusen game this season, but revealed his teammates were livid with their performance against Frankfurt yesterday.

“As a team, I don't want to say embarrassed, but we were angry at ourselves,” the 26-year-old said in his post-game interview with ESPN.

” This is because we know how good we can be. Some of the players who are still here and the new players who have come in know the quality of the team, but we weren't able to show it.”

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Tella lauds Leverkusen's new boss, shades Ten Hag

With Ten Hag away from the dugout, Tella describes Hjulmand's presence as a breath of fresh air, away from what the Dutchman offered in his brief spell on the Leverkusen touchline.

“I think Kasper coming in has given us a lift. I think we want to focus on ourselves; we don't want to get carried away after our first win of the season, but we are on the right track.

“It was a game in which we needed to show a reaction and get a big result, and today we were able to do it at home in front of our home fans.”

“Obviously, we know what happened in the past. As a team, if we are to look at ourselves, we know the standard which we have for ourselves wasn't as good as we know it can be.”

“We spoke to ourselves individually, and we need to show a reaction. As you can see from the training, the possession, and the intensity with which we came.

“We were able to execute the game plan.  Of course, it is early days, but it was a great start,” the former Burnley attacker concluded.

Leverkusen are currently 9th on the Bundesliga table after three games. They kick off their Champions League campaign with a trip to face Danish side FC Kobenhavn.