"An exciting situation awaits as we always want to test ourselves against the best. Now last season's best team are coming and we want to remain unbeaten after this match," said Pätzold: "We will stand up to them with all our strength and hopefully get a result."
The last matchday provides encouragement with VfL Wolfsburg ending FC Bayern's 44 league game unbeaten run. "Wolfsburg showed they can be beaten if you are disciplined in working against the ball and make it as difficult as possible for them to get into goalscoring areas," said Pätzold: "We need to have a very good day and a lot of things have to go right for us and Bayern need to have an off day."
Leverkusen are now unbeaten in six games. "We feel good. The last few matches have shown how difficult it is for teams to beat us. We get our chances regardless of the opponents and we can play our game," said Pätzold: "We showed that against Frankfurt and Hoffenheim so why not against FC Bayern as well? After the defeat to Wolfsburg, they are under pressure not to drop any more points."
Getting a result against the champions is not just down to the defensive ability of his team according to the coach. "We have to survive dominant phases from the opponent and I trust the team to be able to do it again. At the same time, we want to approach this game on the front foot and disrupt the opponents early," said Pätzold: "It wouldn't be our style to start with the expectation of defending passively for 90 minutes. That wouldn't fit in with our position in the table."
He does not believe that the exertions of Wednesday's 2-0 win at Juventus in the Champions League "will play a big role. They have such quality in depth in the squad that they are very much able to deal with double fixture weeks. They have proved that many times," said the 45 year-old: "They can bring on a lot of quality from the bench."
For the Werkself, Loreen Bender, who has just been awarded the gold Fritz Walter medal, is back in training after picking up an injury in the 1-1 draw at Werder Bremen. Synne Skinnes Hansen (thigh), Melissa Friedrich (rehab training) and Paulina Bartz (illness) are still sidelined.
Tickets for the game at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium are available HERE from the online shop and, according to availability, from the matchday ticket office. SPORT1 on free TV and the two streaming services MagentaSport and DAZN will broadcast the match live.
The Werkself Live match magazine is available here (in German):
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