The return of the UEFA Europa League (UEL) sees two sides meet that were eliminated in the last 16 stage last term, as Bayer Leverkusen host Monaco at the BayArena. Die Werkself head into this play-off after being knocked out of the Champions League, although they incredibly only reached this stage through a superior H2H record against Atlético Madrid by virtue of a 99th minute penalty miss in the Spanish capital!
A win in this first leg appears crucial to Leverkusen’s chances of progression considering they’ve never won an away H2H at Monaco (D1, L2). However taking a first-leg advantage to Monaco next week certainly isn’t a guarantee given Leverkusen are bidding to win a home European knockout game for the first time since August 2020 (L2), with both of those defeats coming ‘to nil’. Encouragingly, form on their own turf has been good of late, with Borussia Dortmund the only visiting side to win at the BayArena since October (W3, D2).
They’ll face one of Europe’s most in-form sides here, with Monaco one of just ten sides across Europe’s top five divisions yet to lose a league game since their respective season’s restart (W6, D2). Their latest success was a thumping 3-1 win over defending French champions PSG which propelled the Principality club into Ligue 1’s top-three, so they’re bound to be full of confidence as their attention switches back to Europe.
Les Monégasques are unbeaten on the road since October in all competitions too (W3, D3), although they’ve managed just two victories in their last seven road trips in the UEL (D3, L2), a record they’ll be keen to improve upon here. Achieving that may rely on one of the most potent attacks around, as Monaco have netted 22 goals in their last eight league games!
Players to watch: Flying full-back Jeremie Frimpong has been a bright spark in an otherwise difficult season for Leverkusen, directly contributing to 11 goals so far this term (G5, A6). He can’t match the goalscoring exploits of Monaco’s Wissam Ben Yedder though, with his 19 goals in all competitions this season arriving at a rate of one every 95.8 minutes.
Hot stat: Monaco are fast starters on the road, scoring the opening goal in nine of their 11 Ligue 1 away games this season, as they also did in two of their three UEL away group games.
