Bayer Leverkusen v Atlético Madrid Betting Tips: Visitors to prove too strong at BayArena

This Champions League tie does look rather one-sided on the face of it with last season’s finalists Atletico Madrid taking to the field, however, Bayer Leverkusen are a side who should not be discounted.

Bayer managed to recover from two consecutive Bundesliga defeats to secure back-to-back victories in their last two league matches, scoring six goals in the process. Unfortunately for them though, they still find themselves down in 8th position in the league.

The Germans had a decent group stage in the Champions League and were one of only six teams to go undefeated in their six matches, despite being in a group containing strong opponents such as Monaco and Tottenham Hotspur.

Goal-scoring has been Roger Schmidt’s team’s best asset so far this season and they have scored 34 times in just 21 Bundesliga games and their recent 1-0 defeat to Hamburger SV was the first time they failed to score in any match in all competitions since 22nd October 2016.

Defensively though, they have let in a rather alarming 30 in 21 Bundesliga matches and kept just four clean sheets in the German top flight so far this campaign.

Home form has been poor for Leverkusen in the league with just 17 points yielded from 11 league matches at the BayArena. However, in the Champions League it is a different story with no defeat in their eight games on home turf since 25th February 2015.

Atletico did fantastically well in their Champions League group, finishing top of Group D ahead of German giants Bayern Munich. The Madrid-based side are also going well in La Liga at the moment with no defeats in their last eight matches, however, they still find themselves down in 4th.

Grit and determination is what Atleti base themselves on as they reflect their manager Diego Simeone. This means they have a mean defence which has conceded just 19 goals in 23 league games whilst they also conceded just two goals in their six Champions League group games.

Offensively they of course cannot compete with the top two in Spain and they only have the fourth-best goal-scoring record in Spain this season. However, they still have enough firepower to make them one of the favourites in Europe’s top competition.

Too many draws have been the problem for Simeone’s side away from home with four stalemates in their last five matches on their travels in all competitions whilst they could only beat Rostov and PSV 1-0 in the Champions League group stages earlier on this season.

Even though they do not have a great record on their travels at the moment, or in Europe, Atletico have the nous and Champions League experience to come out on top against this Bayer Leverkusen side. With them having such a good defence, even against a free-scoring Leverkusen team, I expect Atleti to keep a clean sheet here. When they make it their business to keep teams out, it’s almost impossible for teams to find a way through against Simeone’s men.

However, if you are more cautious, backing the visitors to simply win the match is also a decent shout at 5/4.

See more Champions League tips here.