Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen will get their Europa League group-stage campaign underway with a home fixture against Swedish champions Hacken on Thursday.
While the midweek contest represents Leverkusen's first European game of the season, Hacken have made their way through qualifying to seal their place in the main draw.
Match preview
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Xabi Alonso has transformed Leverkusen's fortunes since replacing Gerardo Seoane last October, as the Spaniard led the club from relegation to sixth place all while overseeing a run to the Europa League semi-finals.
The progress under Alonso's watch has shown no signs of slowing down in the opening stages of the 2023-24 campaign, having won four and drawn one of their five competitive games to make an unbeaten start to the season.
After thrashing four-tier Teutonia Ottensen 8-0 in the first round of the DFB-Pokal, Leverkusen racked up three consecutive league victories before they travelled to the Allianz Arena on Friday for a top-of-the-table clash against perennial champions Bayern Munich.
The contest was billed as a test of Leverkusen's title credentials, and they certainly demonstrated that they have enough quality to trouble Thomas Tuchel's side after coming from behind on two occasions thanks to Alex Grimaldo's first-half free kick and Exequiel Palacios's dramatic stoppage-time penalty, ensuring that die Werkself finished matchday four as the league leaders.
Leverkusen will now turn their attention to their first Europa League group-stage game of the season, where they will look to showcase their firepower against European opposition after netting 13 goals in their opening four Bundesliga fixtures.
While the hosts are in the early stages of their season, Hacken are set to enter the business end of a gripping title race in the Swedish top flight.
With seven league games left to play, the defending champions are sitting in third position following Saturday's 3-2 victory over Kalmar, leaving them one point behind second-placed Elfsborg and two points adrift of league leaders Malmo.
Per-Mathias Hogmo's side have had to balance their title defence alongside their European campaign, which got underway in July when they eased to a 5-1 aggregate victory over The New Saints in the first round of Champions League qualifying.
However, their hopes of reaching the main draw of UEFA's premier club competition were ended by a penalty-shootout defeat to KI, causing Hacken to drop down to Europa League qualifying, where they have beaten Zalgiris and Aberdeen to seal their place in the group stage of a UEFA competition for the first time in their history.
Ahead of a tricky away trip to the BayArena, Hacken may be able to draw inspiration from the fact that they won both of their away games in Europa League qualifying by a 3-1 scoreline.
Team News
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Leverkusen are still unable to call upon the injured trio of Arthur, Noah Mbamba, and Patrik Schick, while Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Josip Stanisic are doubts due to injury and illness respectively.
After coming off the bench to score his stoppage-time penalty against Bayern, Palacios is set to return to the Leverkusen midfield for their opening Europa League fixture.
Victor Boniface, who arrived from Belgian side Royal Union SG in the summer, will be determined to transfer his impressive form onto the European stage after netting five goals across all competitions this term.
As for the visitors, they will travel to Germany without midfielder Filip Trpcevski and forward Blair Turgott, who are both sidelined with injury issues.
Summer signing Aiham Ousou is expected to make his third consecutive start in central defence, with Hogmo set to name an unchanged starting XI.
Buoyed from finding the net in Saturday's victory, 18-year-old Momodou Sonko will feature in a front three alongside Amor Layouni and Srdjan Hrstic.
Bayer Leverkusen possible starting lineup:
Hradecky; Kossounou, Tah, Tapsoba; Frimpong, Palacios, Xhaka, Grimaldo; Hofmann, Wirtz; Boniface
Hacken possible starting lineup:
Abrahamsson; Sanberg, Ousou, Hovland, Fridriksson; Rygaard, Gustafson, Romeo; Layouni, Sonko, Hrstic
We say: Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 Hacken
Leverkusen have begun the campaign in a rich vein of form, and we think that they will get the better of the Swedish champions to claim maximum points and extend their unbeaten run to the season to six matches across all competitions.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Ben Sully
