After their masterpiece in the Bundesliga, Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen want to take the next step towards winning the title in the Europa League. In the quarter-final second leg, the successful team goes into the race against West Ham with a two-goal lead.
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The team and coach “showed that they are greedy, that they want to keep winning, not stop. We now want to step up,” announced managing director Fernando Carro full of confidence. Nevertheless, he admitted that getting ready for the duel at West Ham United (9:00 p.m.) after the title party was “not easy”.
>>> LIVE TICKER: West Ham United vs. Bayer Leverkusen – Europa League quarter-finals
Alonso rotates diligently
Compared to the Bundesliga duel against SV Werder Bremen (5-0), coach Xabi Alonso changed his starting lineup to six positions. As expected, Cup keeper Matej Kovar starts for goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, while Josip Stanisic is preferred in defense over Edmond Tapsoba.
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Alonso is also relying on a completely new attack formation: Florian Wirtz, Patrik Schick and Grimaldo start for Victor Boniface, Jonas Hofmann and Amine Adli. In addition, Exequiel Palacios replaces the German international Robert Andrich on the six.
West Ham vs. Leverkusen: The lineups
West Ham United: Fabianski – Coufal, Zouma, Aguerd, Cresswell – Soucek, Ed. Alvarez, Kudus, Ward-Prowse, Bowen – Antonio
Bayer Leverkusen: Kovar – Stanisic, Kossounou, Tah, Hincapie – Palacios, G. Xhaka, Tella, Wirtz, Grimaldo – Schick
Here’s how you can watch West Ham – Leverkusen live:
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Europa League: Will Leverkusen also win at West Ham?
Four days after the rush, the Werkself have to get back into competition mode as quickly as possible in the quarter-final second leg on Thursday (9 p.m.). He was sure “that the players want to bring this home,” said Carro RTL – warned in view of the supposedly comfortable 2-0 cushion from the first leg. This is “a deceptive result. West Ham are very strong at home.”
This is exactly what SC Freiburg had to painfully experience in the previous round. The Breisgauer team won the first duel, but with a 5-0 defeat in the second leg, the team from the East End of London swept over the sports club like a hurricane. In order to take the next step towards the dream goal of the final (May 22nd), there is still a lot of hard work waiting for the Leverkusen team.
In the semi-final, “anything is possible” for the Werkself, who returned to the training pitch on Tuesday after two days in party mode. We want to go to Dublin and bring the Europa League home too,” said Carro.
Even Alonso, who loudly gave instructions again during the final training session on Wednesday in Leverkusen, was by no means full after the early championship; he announced in an unusually bold manner: “We want more.”
Europa League live: Bayer’s success depends on this
Quite a few now see Leverkusen as the top favorites for the title. After the bitter semi-final exit last year, there could even be a chance for revenge against AS Roma in the semi-finals if the team prevails against AC Milan.
In any case, a lot at Leverkusen will depend on how quickly Alonso can build up the tension among his players. Ex-coach Christoph Daum had already… SID-Interview warned that it wouldn’t surprise him if after the triumph he “runs out of steam”.
This is not the only reason why leading players like Granit Xhaka will be in particular focus. Especially since the invincibles from the Rhineland would surpass Juventus Turin and become the sole European record holder, they should also remain unbeaten in the 44th competitive game in a row at the Olympic Stadium in 2012.