Champions League night at German champions

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·25 November 2024

Champions League night at German champions

Matchday 5 at Bayer Leverkusen

We would have loved to have set off for the Rhineland with a win under our belts, but at least we know from our last match in Rotterdam that the form book has a habit of going out of the window in the Champions League! Our first three points of the UEFA Champions League season have seen us keep our chances of making the knockout stages alive, even if the quality of our opposition is about to step up.

On Tuesday evening at 21:00 CET, the fifth UEFA Champions League matchday sees German champions Bayer Leverkusen host our Red Bulls! After finally banishing their reputation as eternal runners-up last season, Leverkusen are looking to take on the continent's finest. Xabi Alonso's side did not only complete the historic achievement of being the first side to win a Bundesliga title in an unbeaten season, but also won the German Cup and reached the final of the UEFA Europa League.

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More on Leverkusen's back story can be read in our opposition lowdown.

to the opposition portrait

It was only to be expected that Leverkusen would struggle to keep up such astonishing form, but there is no faulting the strength of a squad with Florian Wirtz taking the star role in an ensemble worth an estimated 635 million Euro. Seven points leaves them 13th in the table currently, while a 5-2 win against Heidenheim has brought them up to fourth in the German Bundesliga table.

In our first-ever encounter with Leverkusen, we want to shed our underdogs tag and create a major upset. Close to 900 Salzburg fans are expected in the 30,000-capacity BayArena to cheer on our Red Bulls. You can also support us from the comfort of your own home - with live text updates on our website, while Sky Sport Austria are broadcasting the encounter in Austria.

Don't forget - you can predict all our Red Bulls' UEFA Champions League scores in the My RBS Prediction Game and claim important points in the overall rankings:

to the prediction game

Injury news

Not available are Janis Blaswich (calf), Fernando (thigh), Maurits Kjaergaard (ankle) and Leandro Morgalla (thigh).

Views

We are facing a team on Tuesday that are very mature and have unbelievable quality. They press very high and will want to put us under pressure right from the start. We have to find solutions. I hope that we will play like we did at Feyenoord and show the same virtues, determination and cleverness we had in our last Champions League performance.

Pepijn Lijnders

We knew that the opponents would not get easier in the Champions League. It was important we finally got points at Feyenoord. We definitely won't start as favourites against the German champions, but that makes us even more determined to surprise them. We can only achieve that if we put in an ideal performance and play very disciplined football.

Moussa Yeo