Leverkusen vs. Inter, the complete guide
Team
— Dec 9th 2024All there is to know ahead of the Champions League clash, scheduled for Tuesday 10 December at 21:00 at the BayArena
The Champions League is back: Inter are preparing to take on Bayer Leverkusen away. The game, on matchday six of the League Phase, is scheduled at 21:00 CET on Tuesday 10 December at the BayArena in Leverkusen. A high ranking clash awaits the Italian and German Champions: Inter are second with 13 points, while Bayer are in sixth spot, just three points behind the nerazzurri.
LEVERKUSEN: RECENT FORM AND PERFORMANCES
As a young and brilliant side, Bayer Leverkusen come into the clash against Inter after gaining 10 points in the first five matches of the Champions League. The German's have three wins against Feyenoord (0-4), Milan (1-0) and RB Salzburg (5-0), as well as a draw away to Brest (1-1) and a big defeat against the current leaders Liverpool at Anfield.
In the Bundesliga, Leverkusen currently find themselves in third with 26 points, seven behind the leaders Bayern Munich. Xabi Alonso's side come into the match against Inter after securing five consecutive wins in the league, Champions League and German Cup, including one match in which they limited Bayern Munich away. In the most recent Bundesliga match, the German Champions beat St. Pauli 2-1 at the BayArena: this season Leverkusen have only lost against RB Leipzig, which happened in August, meaning that you'd have to look back to 5 May 2023 to find the last time that they lost a game (B. Leverkusen 1-2 Cologne).
The team have brilliant attacking potential, Xabi Alonso's Leverkusen side have scored 52 goals in 22 games this season: their top scorer is the 21 year old Florian Wirtz, who has already scored ten goals. Patrik Schick and Victor Boniface are just behind him with nine and eight goals respectively: the two latter were absent in the last league match due to injury and are in doubt for the Champions League clash against Inter.
STATISTICHE E CURIOSITÀ
Inter have won all three games that they've played against Bayer Leverkusen: among the sides that the German's have faced in European Competitions, no team has inflicted more defeats on them than Inter (a stat mirrored also by Atalanta).
Inter have won their last four games in the Champions League without conceding a goal: when considering the average xG of every shot faced by a single team in the tournament, Simone Inzaghi's side are the one side that have conceded the least goalscoring chances (0.07).
Yann Sommer has kept a clean-sheet in 75% of the matches he has played for Inter in the Champions League (9/12); this is one of the highest percentages of clean sheets for goalkeepers that have made at least ten appearances for a single team in this competition.
Hakan Çalhanoglu has recovered an average of 8.7 balls per match in this Champions League campaign, the highest in this campaign for all players who have played a minimum of 250 minutes.
Bayer Leverkusen have won seven of the last eight matches that they have played at home in the main European competitions (the other was a draw), all since the start of this season. During these eight matches, they have scored 21 goals more than their opponents (27 scored, 6 conceded) and have shot 138 times more than they have conceded (206 taken, 68 conceded).
Bayer Leverkusen have completed 84% of the passes that they have attempted in the Champions League; second only to Manchester City (87.7%).
LEVERKUSEN vs. INTER: THREE MATCHES, THREE WINS
Inter have faced Bayer Leverkusen on three occasions, winning three times. The first two games came in the Champions League 2002/03 campaign, when the nerazzurri took on the German side in the second round of the competition: in the match at San Siro, Inter won 3-2 thanks to a brace from Luigi Di Biagio and an own goal from the goalkeeper Butt (the games for Bayer came from Zivkovic and França). In Germany, Inter qualified for the quarter finals after winning 2-0: the deadlock was broken through Obafemi Martins as he scored his first Inter goal, celebrating with his iconic flips, which became his trademark celebration. The match was closed thanks to a goal from Emre Belozoglu. The most recent meeting came in the summer of 2020, when Inter and Bayer Leverkusen played in Dusseldorf in the Europa League quarter finals: on that occasion the nerazzurri got to the semi finals winning 2-1 with goals from Barella and Lukaku.
WHERE TO WATCH BAYER LEVERKUSEN VS. INTER
Bayer Leverkusen vs. Inter will be played on Tuesday 10 December at 21:00 CET at the BayArena. It will be shown live on Sky and Now and through streaming on Sky Go and NOW TV.
UPDATES ON INTER TV
As per usual, updates will be give on Inter TV as well as pre-match coverage right before kick off. Our pre-Live match coverages will be live from 19:30 CET through the Club's official account on Youtube, until 20:15 CET. At the end of the game there will be analysis and interviews.
REFEREE
Referee: Slavko Vinčić (SVN) Assistants: Tomaž Klančnik, Andraž Kovačič (SVN) Fourth Official: Matej Jug (SVN) VAR: Alen Borošak (SVN) Assistant VAR: Pol van Boekel (NED)