Xhaka explains lack of goal-celebration: “Wanted to show Gladbach and its fans full respect.”

Leverkusen midfield talisman Granit Xhaka couldn’t possibly have gotten both his team and the 2024/25 German Bundesliga off to a better start last night when he sent an absolute tracer bullet into the back-of-the-net to record the first goal of the new campaign. The Swiss superstar was nevertheless cognizant of the fact that he was actually directly at fault for both of Gladbach’s goals scored in the second half.

“I lost the header duel before the first goal,” Xhaka – as quoted by Stephan van Nocks of Germany’s Kicker Magazine – noted afterwards, ”the second goal is a bit unfortunate. Not every striker puts his foot in there. But we can still do a lot of things better. It wasn’t perfect.”

“I’m no longer 18. I’m almost 32,” Xhaka continued in his interview, “One can assess oneself better at that age. There’s room for improvement for myself, for the whole team. I’m convinced that we’ll definitely show better games. We weren’t concentrated enough twice. We conceded twice, but we showed once again. We don’t give up, we believe in ourselves until the end.”

In general, Xhaka noted that the real reason his team left the door open for a comeback was that they missed several chances to extend their lead. It was such that the veteran wasn’t in a mood to hold himself too highly. Xhaka also directly addressed the fact that he didn’t celebrate after scoring his wonder-goal. Years of experience – including four seasons representing the opposing club that launched his career – left him knowing better.

“If one doesn’t score goals up front, one will let them in at the back,” Xhaka said, “[with regard to the lack of a goal-celebration] I wanted to show Gladbach and its fans full respect.”