Yesterday evening, at midnight, all 32 teams of the upcoming Champions League season will be revealed. The most intriguing match of the evening will take place in Leverkusen, where the local team "Bayer" will try to eliminate the deficit against "Lazio" from Rome. Eurofootball.com invites you to get acquainted with one of the most powerful teams in Germany.
Why can't football be faster and more interesting?
This is one of the frequently asked questions nowadays, almost becoming a cliche. In 2014, the coach Roger Schmidt, who came to "Bayer", answered with his game philosophy - football can be faster.
R. Schmidt had proven this to Lithuanian football fans when his coached Salzburg "Red Bull", with players like Jonathan Soriano, Kevin Kampl, and Sadio Mane, easily defeated the helpless Vilnius "Žalgiris".
Moving to Germany, R. Schmidt did not give up his football philosophy. The first season with "Bayer" brought ambiguous results - the season ended in fourth place in the Bundesliga - but the team did not leave anyone indifferent.
"Bayer" attacks in a way that the team strikes as quickly and as much as possible, without attempting to hold the ball in the middle of the field for long. As soon as they get hold of the ball, "Bayer" players try to quickly launch an attack with full force.
R. Schmidt's pupils dominated Germany in terms of fast attacks, attacks that ended faster than 7 seconds from the time the attacking team took possession of the ball. In addition, 7.8 shots from outside the penalty area - significantly the best result in the Bundesliga.
Meanwhile, the passing accuracy reached barely 69.9% last year - the 16th result in the Bundesliga, but on average, 21 times per game, the ball was intercepted, which was the best result among all teams.
Both statistics and the view on the field show that R. Schmidt transformed "Bayer" into a team that probably has no analogues at the highest level.
Genius of penalty kicks
Excellent execution of penalty kicks is not considered a necessary quality for a good player. Usually, it is simply an additional skill that adds a bonus to a player.
Meet Hakan Calhanoglu if you haven't already.
Essentially, without any major debates, it can be said that in standard situations in today's football world, no one matches this 21-year-old young player. There are players who are good, very good, or even excellent at executing standard positions. And there is H. Calhanoglu.
Strangely enough, due to his ability to hit penalty kicks, opponents often have to adjust their game plan. Or they should at least do so.
"Lazio" is one of the teams for whom this is particularly relevant. Biancocelesti also like to press opponents actively. The consequence of this is a large number of vulnerabilities in their own half. Such vulnerabilities - an opportunity to score H. Calhanoglu, even when the ball is from the goal more than 40 meters away.
"Lazio" realized this in their first matches when goalkeeper Etrit Berisha had to show his best skills to protect against a penalty kick by H. Calhanoglu shot from about 38 meters.
Finally, speaking of the attacking midfielder of "Bayer," it is impossible not to mention his strike against Borussia Dortmund's goal. This goal can be watched 10, 20, 30 times and it will still look equally good.
The price of insane pressure
No game philosophy is perfect. This, probably, would be acknowledged by R. Schmidt himself.
The obvious weakness of "Bayer" is defense, especially against a well-organized team that knows how to counterattack.
The Leverkusen team plays very fast and often loses possession of the ball, and each such loss of the ball and cutting off their own players is an opportunity for counterattacks, where "Bayer" does not always manage to return or leaves situations to the individual skill of defenders.
This was clearly seen in the first matches. Especially when "Lazio" let in a fantastically fast forward Balde Keita. It was after his raid that the goal fell into the German gates. B. Keita terrorized the "Bayer" defense, especially Jonathan Tah, who was strong but not very fast.
One could even say that B. Keita was unlucky to leave the field with just one goal.
How they will line up
In terms of tactics, R. Schmidt varies little - yesterday we will see the 4-2-3-1 formation. We can also very easily predict 10 out of 11 players who will start from the first minutes.
The only question mark is the left winger Son Heung-min. The Korean did not participate in the weekend match against "Hannover", and his participation in this evening's match is also questionable.
Admir Mehmedi from Switzerland will probably replace S. Heung-min.
The probable lineup of "Bayer" for the match against "Lazio":
Other Eurofootball.com articles about Champions League teams:
"Shakhtar" leaves the war-torn Donbass - one step away from the Champions League
Ambitious "Monaco" vs. "Valencia" club
"Manchester United's rivals from Bruges - who are they?"
