Bayer Leverkusen is hosting Atalanta at BayArena in the second leg of the Round of 16 in the UEFA Europa League. Leverkusen has lost another key player in Florian Wirtz this past weekend, and that is a huge blow for this team that was firing on all cylinders. Atalanta is not doing well in Serie A, but they have been scoring a lot in the Europa League.
Leverkusen now hasn’t won any of their last 3 games, while losing their last 2 in a row, but we can never write this team off. Even though they will be without Schick and Wirtz, Leverkusen still has plenty of talent left on their roster, starting with Diaby who has been outstanding for this team. Diaby is the leading goalscorer for Leverkusen in the Europa League with 4 goals, while Andrich and Wirtz have added 3 goals each. In their last Bundesliga game, Leverkusen was playing against Koln, and that lost that game, but they also lost Wirtz, and that hurts more than losing 3 points. In the first leg, Leverkusen has lost 3-2, but they are at home now, and they definitely have a good chance of getting back.
Even though Atalanta has lost only 1 of their last 5 games, their Serie A performances haven’t been that good, and they are struggling a lot in the competition. As far as Europa League goes, Atalanta has done really well so far, and Malinovskyi is their leading goalscorer with 3 goals. At the moment, Atalanta is outside the European zone in Serie A, in 7th place, but they are not far away, and they might still get there. In that first leg against Leverkusen, Atalanta hasn’t had a good first half, but they switched gears in the second half, and they deserved a positive result in this match. Because Atalanta is so inconsistent this season, they are not playing well defensively, and their offense is struggling right now, this will be a very tough game for them, but being ahead will relieve the pressure a bit.
The first leg was fun, really fun, and I don’t see a reason why the second leg wouldn’t be fun as well. Leverkusen has to attack, and they will, which will leave them wide open for Atalanta. I see goals on both sides.