Champions League play continues on Wednesday when Bayer Leverkusen welcomes Atletico Madrid to Germany for the first leg of their knockout round matchup. Beyer comes into the match struggling after losing 8 of their last 10 games. Despite being labeled as heavy underdogs, Roger Schimdt’s club believes they can upset the runner-ups from last year.
“We have total faith in the squad and also in the coach,” said Leverkusen’s director of soccer, Rudi Voller. “There are reasons why we appointed Schmidt, and that’s because we have a concept to reach our goals and play attractive football with this coach.”
Leverkusen’s struggles are on the defensive end as their offense has at least been consistent with Karim Bellarbi, Heung-Min Son and Stefan Kiessling. The Bundesliga team will be without Omer Toprak and Robbie Kruse as well on Wednesday leaving them even more shorthanded for the ever-important home game.
Atletico Madrid comes into the match scorching after a 3-0 shutout against La Liga club, Almeria. Other than their loss to Celta Vigo, they have only tasted defeat once since January 31st, including a 4-0 thumping of rival Real Madrid in the Derby. Unlike Leverkusen, Diego Simone’s squad plays stellar defense and should be able to score on their weakened back line.
Los Colchoneros should score early and stymie Leverkusen the rest of the way. They know they play well at home so they will be looking to score a couple away goals before parking the bus and focusing on shutting down Leverkusen’s forwards. Look for Mario Manzukic to score for the Atleti.
Prediction: 2-0 Atletico Madrid
The game kicks off at 2:45 PM EST on Wednesday February 25th from Bayarena, Germany. It will air live on Fox Sports 1 and can be streamed online here. If you prefer to watch the game on your phone, you can download the Fox Sports Go app.
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