Excitement till the very end
Coming into Matchday 8, Leverkusen sit in eighth place on 13 points. Sparta are in 29th with four points. The best way for the Werkself to guarantee they will remain in the top eight by the end of the night is to win big. However, it’s not quite as straightforward as that. Find out HERE what happens next after the completion of the league phase.
All 36 teams will be in action simultaneously on Wednesday night with a lot still to play for up and down the table. Sixteen out of the 18 fixtures have something riding on them for at least one team. A lot is going to change over these final 90 minutes.
#B04SPARTA – Match facts
The only previous competitive meeting between Leverkusen and Sparta came in the group stage of the 2007/08 UEFA Cup, with the Werkself winning 1-0 at home.
The Czech club’s last away win in the Champions League against any team came way back in December 2001 (1-0 at Porto). You have to go even further back for the last time they won a competitive fixture in Germany, when they beat Werder Bremen 3-2 in the 1992/93 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. They’ve failed to win any of their six away games against German clubs since.
Bayer 04 and Sparta have actually had five opponents in common during the league phase. The Werkself have earned 10 points from games against Red Bull Salzburg, Brest, Atletico Madrid, Feyenoord and Inter Milan, while Prague have managed just three thanks to a 3-0 win over Salzburg.
Focus on Sparta
The defending Czech double winners are currently third in their domestic league with 37 points, trailing Viktoria Plzen (43) and Slavia Prague (50). They also have the third-best attack in the division but have struggled defensively, making mistakes when pressed. Lars Friis’s team have let in 22 goals in 19 league fixtures and have one of the worst defences in the Champions League with 19 conceded in seven, while stats such as just 45.2 percent of challenges won, 2,190 passes played and a completion rate of 74.4 percent are all the worst of the 36 teams in the competition. Find out more about today’s opponents HERE.
Pre-match quotes from Prague
After Alonso and Patrik Schick spoke at the Werkself’s pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Sparta boss Friis and midfielder Lukas Sadilek also faced the media. “We’re up against world-class players and a top team from the Bundesliga. We want to build on our performance against Inter [1-0 loss] and do all we can to get some points,” the coach said.
His player added: “The difference to these top teams is the speed, the pace of their passing. It’s about the details. It’ll be important to keep the ball and be patient. We want to cause Leverkusen problems and show off that we’re a Czech team.”
Kabakov in charge
UEFA have appointed Georgi Kabakov as Wednesday’s referee. It’s the first time the 38-year-old Bulgarian will oversee a Werkself fixture. His assistants are compatriots Martin Margaritov and Radoslav Gidzhenov. The VAR is Juan Martinez Munuera of Spain.
