Inter vs. Bayer Leverkusen, stats and trivia

The countdown is on to Inter vs. Bayer Leverkusen: the winners of this Europa League quarter-final clash will face either FC Basel or Shakhtar Donetsk in the semis. The Düsseldorf Arena will be the venue on Monday 10 August, with kick-off scheduled for 21:00 CEST. It’ll be a straight knockout tie: if the score is level after 90 minutes, extra time will be played. If the teams still can’t be separated after that, penalties will decide matters.

Inter and Bayer Leverkusen will be meeting for the third time: the Nerazzurri won both fixtures when the sides came up against each other in the 2002/03 Champions League. More on this here.

INTER'S PREVIOUS ENCOUNTERS WITH GERMAN SIDES 

Inter have faced a German team on 50 occasions, with these matches having played a significant role in the Nerazzurri’s history in European competition. Inter’s record from these games reads as follows: 23 wins, nine draws and 18 defeats. The first of these was the biggest win that Inter have recorded against German opposition: 8-2 against Hannover in 1960.

Inter have also played two European finals against German sides: first, the double-legged 1997 UEFA Cup final against Schalke 04 (a 1-0 victory for both sides on home turf followed by a penalty shootout defeat for the Nerazzurri); second, that legendary Champions League final in Madrid in 2010.

Despite an overall positive record, Inter have won just one of their last eight encounters with German sides in Europe (drawing one and losing six of these meetings). This season, the Nerazzurri came up against Borussia Dortmund: a 2-0 victory in Milan was followed by a 3-2 defeat on German soil.

Bayer Leverkusen, meanwhile, haven’t fared too well against Italian opposition in the past: the Germans have lost eight out of 13 fixtures and were knocked out when they last faced an Italian side in Europe, with Udinese emerging victorious in 1999. Furthermore, they’ve lost their last three matches against teams from Italy.

INTER IN EUROPE THIS SEASON 

It’s the first time that Inter have made the quarter-finals of a European competition since the 2010/11 Champions League, when they were eliminated by Schalke 04. The last time that the Nerazzurri qualified for a European semi-final was in 2009/10, the year when they won the Champions League.

This season, Inter finished third in their Champions League group. They have since progressed from the round of 32 and round of 16 of the Europa League.

Champions League Inter 1-1 Slavia Prague Barcelona 2-1 Inter Inter 2-0 Borussia Dortmund Borussia Dortmund 3-2 Inter Slavia Prague 1-3 Inter  Inter 1-2 Barcelona 

Europa League Ludogorets 0-2 Inter  Inter 2-1 Ludogorets  Inter 2-0 Getafe (in a straight knockout tie)

BAYER LEVERKUSEN IN EUROPE THIS SEASON

Bayer Leverkusen will be involved in a European quarter-final showdown for the first time since the 2007/08 UEFA Cup. The German side haven’t played in a semi-final in Europe since the 2001/02 Champions League, when they lost to Real Madrid in the final. Die Werkself, who finished fifth in the Bundesliga, were unable to make it through their Champions League group. They then managed to knock out Porto and Rangers in the Europa League.

Champions League Bayer Leverkusen 1-2 Lokomotiv Moscow Juventus 3-0 Bayer Leverkusen Atletico Madrid 1-0 Bayer Leverkusen Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 Atletico Madrid Lokomotiv Moscow 0-2 Bayer Leverkusen Bayer Leverkusen 0-2 Juventus 

Europa League Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 Porto Porto 1-3 Bayer Leverkusen  Rangers 1-3 Bayer Leverkusen Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Rangers 

GOALS AND STATISTICS

• Inter have scored 104 goals in all competitions in 2019/20. In the last 65 seasons, they’ve only exceeded this tally on two occasions: 105 in 2004/05 and 107 in 2006/07.

• 14 of the 16 goals Inter have scored in Europe this season came from open play. The only exceptions were Barella’s goal from a set play against Slavia Prague and Lukaku’s penalty against Ludogorets. Both of these goals were scored in added time.

• Romelu Lukaku has scored in each of his last eight Europa League matches (eleven goals in total), a run which began in 2014/15 while he was on Everton’s books. The Belgian striker is just the second player to achieve this feat in the UEFA Cup/Europa League following on from Alan Shearer in 2004/05. No player has ever scored for nine consecutive matches in the competition.

• For the first time in his career, Romelu Lukaku has scored 30 goals in a single season in all competitions. The last Nerazzurri player to do better across just one campaign was Samuel Eto’o in 2010/11 (37).

• Out of all the teams that have qualified for the Europa League quarter-finals this season, Inter are the side with the most prolific duo up front when all competitions are taken into account: Romelu Lukaku (30) and Lautaro Martínez (19) have scored 49 goals between them. In this respect, the Nerazzurri are 20 ahead of Leverkusen (29, 17 goals scored by Kai Havertz, with Alario and Volland in joint second with twelve).

• Following the restart after the enforced break, Kai Havertz is the youngest player to have scored at least six goals in all competitions when the Top Five European leagues are considered.