Ishak Belfodil Denied First Career Hat-Trick After Hoffenheim Teammate Pokes The Ball In On The Line

Ishak Belfodil missed out on the opportunity to score his first career hat-trick after teammate Andrej Kramarić poked his shot over the line.

During the Hoffenheim and Bayer Leverkusen match at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena on Friday, the 27-year-old Algerian striker opened the scoring for his side before completing his brace in the second half.

However, Belfodil darted into the box and slotted the ball past Lukáš Hrádecký, only for Kramarić to arrive late on and poke it into the back of the net.

Check it out below.

Crazy right?

Maybe Kramarić thought the ball wasn't going over the line and wanted to make sure it was in the back of the net.

Either way, the replays don't do him any favours when it comes to denying Belfodil his first hat-trick.

Interestingly, though, there are many football fans that have come out to defend Kramarić for what he did at that moment.

"Absolutely spot on. You follow in and make sure it goes in. No chances taken, anyone calling him out has never played the game at any level," one Twitter user wrote.

Someone else said: "I'm touching it every day of the week and celebrating."

via GIPHY

A third wrote: "To be fair, he might've thought it was going wide, but only realised it was going in at the last second. As Kramarić runs on to it, it does kinda look like a pass."

A fourth added: "Imagine, though, if he left it and it went out."

Hoffenheim thrashed Leverkusen 4-1, but it's hard to deny that this moment has not overshadowed that result.

Following on from the match, Hoffenheim boss Julian Nagelsmann was happy with how his side had performed on the counter-attack.

"We used the space opened up by Leverkusen's aggressive defending to deliver superb counter-attacks," he said.

"They did exactly what we trained -- and added a few of their own ideas too... They deserved to beat a strong opponent."

What did you make of the whole Belfodil-Kramarić incident? Should Kramarić have left it?

Let us know in the comments.

Featured Image Credit: BT Sport

Topics: Football News, Football, Bayer Leverkusen, Hoffenheim, Julian Nagelsmann, Bundesliga

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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