Match probabilities are 25% for Celtic, Bayer Leverkusen 50% and 25% the draw.
Bayer Leverkusen line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Below is the average player positions of their last 3 games starting with the Europa League game v Ferencvaros.
- In goals is Finland national goalkeeper 1 Lukas Hradecky and he played 84% of minutes in the league last year. Last year in the league he conceded 29 goals against a Post Shot xG of 26.8. Sub keeper is 40 Andrey Lunev who they signed from Zenit St Petersburg in the summer.
- Right back is our very own 30 Jeremie Frimpong who they signed from us in January and he played 436 minutes for them last season. He has played 100% of mins in the 6 league games this year. Last year he had 245 yards per game for progressive carries of the ball which was 2nd only to 12 Edmond Tapsoba their Burkina Faso centre back who is currently out injured who had 259 yards per game. Frimpong had 4 key passes and an xA of 0.13 per 90 last year. This year his xA is 0.15 per 90.
- 6 Odilon Kossouno who they signed from Club Brugge in the summer got injured in their last match and is likely to be replaced at right centre back by 33 Piero Hincapie who they signed from Argentinian side Talleres in the summer.
- Alongside him at left centre back will be 4 Jonathan Tah who played 74% of league minutes last year. He had a 67% aerial duel success rate last year.
- Greek 3 Panagiotis Retsos has been out on loan to Saint-Etienne last year and Sheffield Utd the year before and he will be defensive cover on the bench.
- Left back is 5 Mitchel Bakker who they signed from PSG in the summer. He played 45 times for PSG in his 2 year spell there. He has played every game bar one this season although that was their previous Europa League game against Ferencvaros when he was on the bench and 22 Daley Sinkgraven started. Sinkgraven played 51% of minutes last year.
- Midfield pivots are 20 Charles Aranguiz who played 55% of minutes last year and 10 Kerem Demirbay who played 57%. 8 Robert Andrich signed from Union Berlin is another option while 25 Palacios (who played 19% of minutes last year) is injured. Aranguiz had a passing accuracy of 86.5% last year and a long pass accuracy of 66.9% while Demirbay's was 78.8% and 57.6%. Demirbay averaged 23 pressures per game with a 36.3% success rate and Aranguiz averaged 21 with a 32.6% success rate. When Aranguiz was on the pitch last year the team had a worse goal difference of 1.26 per game more than they had when he was off the pitch and Demirbay had a worse goal difference of 0.6 per game.
- The attacking midfield 3 are (to the right) 38 Karim Bellarbi who played 26% of minutes last year, (to the left) 19 Moussa Diaby who played 78% of minutes last year and (in the hole) 18 year old 27 Florian Wirtz who played 73% of minutes last year. 31 Amine Adli who they signed from Toulouse in the summer is another option and he played in the previous Europa League game. 11 Nadiem Amiri played 62% of minutes last year but hasn't started since 14th August. 7 Paulinho only played 2% of the minutes last season. Diaby had 0.41 assists per 90 last year and an xA of 0.26 per 90. Wirtz was 0.24 and 0.18 while Bellarbi was 0 and 0.2. When Diaby was on the pitch last year the team had a favourable goal difference of 0.7 per game more than they had when he was off the pitch. Wirtz is rated their best player this year so far and has scored 4 goals.
- Their centre forward is Czech Republic 14 Patrik Schick who played 61% of minutes last year. 13 Lucas Alario (who played 41% of minutes last year) is a back up option and he played against Ferencvaros. Schick scored 0.43 goals per 90 last year and had an xG of 0.47 per 90. Alario had 0.8 goals per 90 with an exact same xG per 90 as Schick. Both players average 5.7 touches in the opposition penalty box per 90.
Leverkusen have played 8 games this season and won 6 of them. They drew away to Union Berlin and the lost 4-3 at home to Dortmund. Both were league games.
They won their first Europa League match against Ferencvaros 2-1 after coming from behind in 8 minutes.
Their ELO rating is 31 which is higher than the 38 Betis were when we faced them. Rangers were 70 and AZ Alkmaar were 72 when we met them.
Stats from the Ferencvaros game;
- Leverkusen xG 2.23, Ferencvaros 1.22
- Accurate passes 597 v 269
- Accuracy 90% v 80%
- Attacks from the left 33% and attacks from the right 44%
In their last league game they had 47% of attacks from the right and 31% from the left.
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