West Ham United will face Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League quarter-final first-leg clash next week.
The Europa League quarter-final face-off between West Ham and Bayer Leverkusen is an eagerly anticipated one.
Hammers boss David Moyes will be desperate to prove to the fans that his style is a match for the incredibly exciting brand of football implemented by Xabi Alonso.
Leverkusen are currently sitting 13 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, and are set to lose their ‘Neverkusen’ tag by winning the league this season.
Alonso’s men are unbeaten in all competitions so far this term, so the challenge that awaits West Ham is obviously a very difficult one.
The Hammers will be without the suspended Edson Alvarez for the first-leg as well, after he picked up a needless yellow card against Freiburg last month.
It seems like everything is stacked against us right now, and Leverkusen have just been handed two more very big boosts ahead of the game…
Bad news for West Ham ahead of Europa League quarter-final clash
The Hammers travel out to the Bay Arena this time next week to take on the Bundesliga outfit in the first-leg of the quarter-final tie.
Moyes will undoubtedly try to keep things tight, and hopefully we manage to bring a decent result back to East London with us, even if that means a 0-0 draw or a narrow one-goal defeat.
However, Leverkusen will obviously represent a really stern test for us, and they’ve just been handed a major double boost ahead of the Europa League clash…
Firstly, Victor Boniface returned from injury last night for Leverkusen’s DFB-Pokal semi-final tie with Dusseldorf.
We all know about Boniface – Moyes apparently wants to bring him to the London Stadium.
He has bagged a really impressive 16 goals and eight assists in 24 games for Bayer Leverkusen this season (Transfermarkt).
Having not being able to call upon the Nigerian hitman since December, having him back and available for selection is a major boost for Alonso.
Boniface is the kind of player who could cause us real problems what with his immense strength, blistering pace and lethal finishing ability.
Secondly, Leverkusen won their cup tie 4-0 last night. They scored all four goals by the 60th minute, and that enabled Alonso to make a whole host of substitutions, far earlier than he usually would have been able to.
The Spaniard took off key men Amine Adli, Patrik Schick, Alex Grimaldo, Florian Wirtz and Granit Xhaka midway through the second-half.
Leverkusen have played 40 games this season in all competitions compared to West Ham’s 44. In our last game – an intense London Derby against Tottenham – Moyes failed to make a single substitution.
The German side will be far fresher than us, that’s for sure. And last night’s 4-0 romp against Dusseldorf in the German cup will serve them very well ahead of the West Ham Europa League quarter-final clash.
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