Bosz: Winning with 20 players

In addition to long-term injury Kevin Volland (ankle), Nadiem Amiri is also sidelined after suffering a shoulder injury in Wednesday’s 3-1 win against Union Berlin in the DFB Cup quarter-finals. Lars Bender is also unavailable as Bosz explained, “he's on his way back and has trained again,” but the clash with Frankfurt “is out of the question.” Mitchell Weiser will start at right-back in place of the skipper.

Werkself impressive at home

The Black and Reds have an impressive record at the BayArena in 2020: six wins in six games. And now Eintracht come to Leverkusen. Bosz on the winning home form: “During the winter break, we looked at areas where we can improve. We identified stability and home games – both have worked. That was important.“

Nevertheless, according to Bosz, the Werkself face an opponent tomorrow who “can motivate themselves for individual games and produce great performances; we’ve seen that, above all, in the cup competitions. They are very straight-up and direct.”

Bosz relies on whole squad

In recent games, substitutes have often proved to be match winners. “We often come out on top late on,” said the Dutch coach before adding: “I always say to my players, we win games with 20 rather than eleven players.”

Bosz finished off by looking forward to a sell-out crowd at the BayArena. The 56-year-old: “Footballers are nothing without the fans. It absolutely helps when the stadium is sold-out and the fans are right behind the team. It can give you that extra something that makes the difference.”

Match information:
Attendance: Bayer 04 announce a sold-out BayArena
Broadcaster: Sky (TV) and Werkself Radio (bayer04.de)
Referee: Dr. Felix Brych (Munich)