West Ham are big underdogs for the quarter-final clash but Bayer Leverkusen have inadvertently made David Moyes’ preparation easier.
West Ham will meet Bundesliga champions in waiting Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League last eight.
The Hammers head to Germany for the first leg on April 11th.
And they welcome Xabi Alonso’s side to the London Stadium a week later.
West Ham may have home advantage for that crucial second leg. But Bayer Leverkusen have still been made big favourites.
Given the German side are remarkably still unbeaten in all competitions, that’s understandable.
But the gulf between most Premier League and Bundesliga teams, West Ham’s talent in attack and experience in Europe mean nobody should be rushing to write West Ham off too soon.
Ahead of the game Moyes and his coaching team will be looking to watch Alonso’s pass-masters as much as possible after the international break.
Well Bayer Leverkusen have given the game away to West Ham with a boastful social post.
The Germans have posted a lot on social media about how good they are since the draw was made.
Nothing wrong with that of course.
But the latest post may just help Moyes identify the two players West Ham must focus on stopping in order to beat Leverkusen.
Most observers might think of Florian Wirtz and Granit Xhaka when singling out key players who make Leverkusen tick.
But West Ham’s quarter-final opponents have highlighted the huge contributions of full-backs Alejandro Grimaldo and Jeremie Frimpong.
The post shows the pair have a combined total of 46 goal contributions between them so far this season.
Grimaldo, Leverkusen’s “left-back”, has 11 goals and 14 assists in 37 games across all comps.
And right-back Frimpong has 11 goals and 10 assists from four games less.
As astonishing as that may be, it shows Moyes exactly who makes this team tick.
Grimaldo and Frimpong have contributed to nearly HALF of all their 100 plus goals this season.
So if West Ham can stop the deadly full-back duo then that is half the job done on this Leverkusen team.
The Hammers also have the incentive of revenge after being trolled by the Germans following the 4-0 defeat to them in pre-season.