Leverkusen vs. Hertha BSC preview: Bayer can inch closer to the European places
Hertha travel to the BayArena on Sunday in search for their third win in four games, while Leverkusen are hoping to settle down and start playing some consistent football.
Leverkusen
A victory on Sunday will move Bayer from 11th to 9th in the table, as their long road back into the European places trudges on. However, they must avoid looking ahead to their Europa League knockout match against Ferencvaros on Thursday.
Leverkusen drew to Hertha 2-2 at the Olympiastadion back in September, but wonderkid Florian Wirtz will be in the squad this time around. Jonathan Tah, Piero Hincapie and Amine Adli are also back after serving suspensions on Matchday 22.
In his press conference, Xabi Alonso said, "We’ve had good training sessions. We are between two English weeks and are fully focused. We are ready for the coming intensive weeks. Nevertheless, the next game is always the most important."
Team News
Charles Aranguiz and Andrey Lunyov are missing, while Patrik Schick will likely start on the bench again as he eases himself back into the squad.
Hertha BSC
With a group of teams packed together on 19 points, Hertha really need a result to further distance themselves from the relegation conversation. Sandro Schwarz’s squad took away three huge points at home against Augsburg last week, but have a more difficult away test on Matchday 23.
All of Die Alte Dame’s first team center defenders are healthy and available for the first time in what seems like forever. But, Hertha have only claimed four points from their away league matches this season and need more production in front of goal from a team that has scored just 27 goals in 22 games.
Schwarz stated, "At the end of the day, it is down to us to drag the game our way. We have great respect for a very, very good team, whose speed we will have to defend. We need to show the courage that we did in Dortmund once again on Sunday."
Team News
Kelian Nsona, Chidera Ejuke and Wilfried Kanga are still missing for the blue capital club.