West Ham host Bayer Leverkusen at London Stadium in the second leg of their Quarter-Final in 2023-24 UEFA Europa League.
Trailing 2-0 from the first leg, West Ham must win by a three-goal margin if want to reach the semi-finals although a two-goal winning margin would force extra time and possibly penalties.
Bayer Leverkusen meanwhile will progress if can avoid defeat or lose by a single-goal margin.
Team News
George Earthy is sidelined for West Ham after he suffered concussion during their Premier League loss to Fulham.
Emerson Palmieri and Lucas Paqueta are both suspended for this match but Konstantinos Mavropanos, Jarrod Bowen (knock), Kalvin Phillips (hamstring) and Alphonse Areola (groin) face late fitness tests.
Bayer Leverkusen have no fresh injury concerns to report after their Bundesliga win over Werder Bremen, which secured the league title.
Adam Hlozek (ankle) is the only player ruled out.
When is Kick-Off?
West Ham face Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday 18 April at London Stadium at 8pm BST, live on TNT Sports 2 in the UK.
Stat Attack
- West Ham lost their only previous competitive meeting against Bayer Leverkusen by a 2-0 result away in the first leg of this Quarter-Final tie.
- Bayer Leverkusen are visiting West Ham at the London Stadium in a competitive fixture for the first time in all competitions.
- Jonas Hofmann and Victor Boniface have scored twice against West Ham this season, albeit at home as Leverkusen won 4-0 in a pre-season friendly then 2-0 in first leg of this tie.
- All five of Mohammed Kudus’ Europa League goals for West Ham this season were scored at home, with the Hammers winning those three home games in which he found the net.
- Patrik Schick has scored in each of Leverkusen’s last two Europa League away games (W1, D1).
Prediction
Although a 2-0 deficit at this stage is a harder ask to turn around compared to an one-goal difference in the Round of 16, West Ham can take heart from how they blew Freiburg apart at home but they must be more clinical than they’ve been in their last two games.
Bayer Leverkusen meanwhile don’t know when to accept defeat this season but after wrapping up the Bundesliga title on Sunday, they can’t let the celebrations affect them here if they want to go for the treble but they were made to grind out their first leg win.
Emerson and Paqueta however are huge losses for West Ham and unless Bowen is back, I can’t see the Hammers turning this around, but a draw might be a decent if futile outcome against the newly-crowned German champions.
Prediction: West Ham 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Result: West Ham 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen (Bayer Leverkusen win 3-1 on aggregate)
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