Bayer Leverkusen vs AC Milan Preview & Prediction | 2024-25 UEFA Champions League | League Phase
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After a slow-ish start, Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen are looking more like their last season selves at the moment as they face seven-time European champions AC Milan to BayArena in their second UEFA Champions League clash of the season.
KICK-OFF DATE/TIME: Tuesday 1st October, 2024 - UK – 8:00pm / US ET – 3:00pm / US PT – 12:00pm
HOW TO WATCH ON TV: UK – TNT Sports / US – Not televised
HOW TO WATCH ONLINE: UK – TNT Sports / US – Paramount+
BAYER LEVERKUSEN PREVIEW: LEVERKUSEN LIFTING
Last season, Bayer Leverkusen suffered just one defeat across all competitions and that came in the final of the UEFA Europa League. The question for this season, retaining manager Xabi Alonso as well as all of their key players, would be to see if they could translate their supreme quality into Europe’s elite level club competition.
After some unconvincing performances and finally suffering a domestic loss last month as they suffered a 3-2 defeat to RB Leipzig, Leverkusen have regrouped. They began their UEFA Champions League campaign with a 4-0 hammering of Feyenoord at De Kuip before sharing a 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena at the weekend.
AC MILAN PREVIEW: RESURGENT ROSSONERI
Following the departure of Stefano Pioli over the summer and the appointment of former Lille, Roma and Shakhtar Donetsk boss Paulo Fonseca, AC Milan endured a difficult start to the campaign with no win in their opening three Serie A matches as well as a 3-1 loss to Liverpool to kick off their UEFA Champions League campaign.
The Rossoneri now come into this one, though, with a bit of early season resurgence behind them having hammered Venezia by four goals to nil, pitched the Derby della Madonnina against Internazionale and now coming into this one on the back of a 3-0 hammering of Lecce with another first-half flurry.
BAYER LEVERKUSEN TEAM NEWS: ADDITIONAL HEADING HERE
One of the only slight criticisms that could have been levelled against Xabi Alonso last season would be that his Bayer Leverkusen side often rotated too much between matches.
He has a fully fit and available squad for this week so will be able to name an unchanged eleven but is unlikely to do so given his methods from last year.
PREDICTED XI (3-4-2-1): Kovar; Tapsoba, Tah, Hincapie; Tella, Xhaka, Aleix Garcia, Alex Grimaldo; Terrier, Wirtz; Boniface
UNAVAILABLE:
QUESTIONABLE:
AC MILAN TEAM NEWS: UNAVAILABLE EXPERIENCE
The biggest job for Paulo Fonseca is finding a way to cram all of what is an extremely deep squad into a cohesive unit with the prime example being Alvaro Morata currently operating in the ten behind Tammy Abraham.
They do have quite a few experienced players currently unavailable for this weekend with Marco Sportiello and Davide Calabria sidelined alongside Alessandro Florenzi and Ismael Bennacer, as well as Noah Okafor.
PREDICTED XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson Royal, Gabbia, Tomori, Hernandez; Fofana, Reijnders; Pulisic, Morata, Leao; Abraham
UNAVAILABLE: Sportiello (Injured), Calabria (Injured), Florenzi (Injured), Bennacer (Injured), Okafor (Injured)
QUESTIONABLE:
KEY STATS
- This is the first UEFA competition match between these two teams.
- Leverkusen have won only one of their last 12 UEFA competition matches against Italian clubs (D3 L8).
- Leverkusen have lost only one of their last 15 UEFA competition matches (W10 D4).
- Leverkusen are unbeaten in their last nine UEFA competition matches at home (W6 D3).
- Leverkusen have only failed to score in one of their last 14 UEFA competition matches.
- AC Milan have lost only two of their last 16 UEFA competition matches against German teams (W7 D7). However, they are without a win in the last five (D4 L1), which includes a 3-1 home defeat against Dortmund in their most recent encounter against a German club (2023/24 UEFA Champions League group stage).
- AC Milan are unbeaten in their last seven UEFA competition matches away from home against German teams (W3 D4).
- AC Milan have lost their last three UEFA competition matches.
- AC Milan have won only two of their last ten matches in the UEFA Champions League competition proper (D3 L5).
BAYER LEVERKUSEN VS AC MILAN PREDICTION
Bayer Leverkusen have been as good as they have been under Xabi Alonso and yet the more impressive thing is them doing it with real style and precision playing what appears to be quite a sophisticated and complex manner. They take on an AC Milan side that have a massive squad with an abundance of talent, especially in attack. Milan are no longer giants of European football but will still head with confidence to Germany and this could be a genuine thriller for the neutral.
BAYER LEVERKUSEN VS AC MILAN TIP: OVER 2.5 GOALS
