Ahead of Friday night’s Bundesliga clash, GGFN’s Chris Baker previews the clash between Bayer Leverkusen and Leipzig at the BayArena.
Team info;
With the Bundesliga table starting to take shape, Bayer currently sit in eighth place just two points of a European place after 10 games with die Werkself starting to pick up some consistent form. Bayer have won their last four games in all competitions including their last two Bundesliga games against Wolfsburg and Darmstadt.
Roger Schmidt will be a much more relaxed and relieved man with his clubs current run of form after a very shaky opening few weeks to the season, without winning consecutive games all season they are finally finding some superlative form with some big fixtures coming up in the coming weeks starting off tomorrow.
Charles Aranguiz remains a huge doubt ahead of week 11, but Schmidt is optimistic that he will be available, with Lars Bender unlikely to be fit either. On the plus side, the Werkself will be welcoming Kevin Kampl, Ömer Toprak, Joel Pohjanpalo and Vladlen Yurchenko all back into the team after they have all been passed fit.
A win against Leipzig will put them above Borussia Dortmund, Cologne, and Eintracht Frankfurt and in a European place before the other weekend fixtures kick start, extending their unbeaten run to five games in all competitions with confidence full flowing.
Bayer are finally on a run with spirits being lifted around the clubs current form, but, the opposition tomorrow will certainly look set to make sure there unbeaten run comes to an end tomorrow evening.
RB Leipzig are in majestic form, sitting joint top of the Bundesliga table with German giants Bayern Munich on 24 points as the newly promoted side continue to stun people around Europe.
Ahead of the fixture tomorrow, Leipzig have doubts with both Burke and Werner coming down with colds, which is inevitable in the winter months but both remain hopeful of playing a part on Friday.
Die Roten Bullen remain unbeaten thus far this season and are on an excellent run of five consecutive victories in the league with them being victorious over Mainz and Darmstadt in recent weeks. Ralph Hasenhüttl will be firing up his squad for tomorrow as they have a chance to go three points clear at the top of the table in there fairly tale start to the season.
Bayern remain one of the top three clubs in the world and certainly favourites to win the Bundesliga title this season, but could the dominance end this season? Could Leipzig keep this run going, are we looking at this years miracle after Leicester City’s heroics in the Premier League last season? Only time will tell and all eyes will be on them in tomorrow nights clash.
Where to watch;
The game at the BayArena kicks off at 20:30CET/19:30GMT on 18 November. The game is live on BT Sport 3, if you are watching in America you can catch the game on FOX Sports USA 2.
Predicter lineups;
Bayer Leverkusen; Leno; Henrichs, Tah, Toprak, Wendell; Havertz, Baumgartlinger, Calhanoglu, Brandt; Hernandez, Mehmedi
RB Leipzig; Gulacsi; Ilsanker, Orban, Compper, Halstenberg; Keita, Demme; Sabitzer, Forsberg; Poulsen, Werner
