West Ham v Bayer Leverkusen

West Ham vs Bayer Leverkusen Preview

West Ham find themselves chasing a 2-0 deficit on Thursday night when they return to their London Stadium for this upcoming 2nd leg clash with German Bundesliga title-winners Bayer Leverkusen after last week's 1st leg loss at the BayArena and The Hammers were also beaten 2-0 at home by Fulham in the Premier League on the weekend as well.

Back-to-back defeats is not the ideal preparation for when you're looking to turnaround a two-goal deficit against the runaway leaders of the Bundesliga and having managed to collect just four wins out of their last 19 matches in all competitions, this could be a long night for manager David Moyes and his West Ham side despite holding home advantage.

West Ham's sporadic success during this 19-match period came in the form of wins against Brentford, Everton and Wolves in the domestic Premier League along with a victory over another German club, Freiburg, in the Europa League, but the London club have also been dealt eight defeats as well.

Form and results at home have also taken a turn for the worse as well, as West Ham have picked up just two wins in their last 10 games in all competitions at their London Stadium.

Bayer Leverkusen further extended their lead at the top of the German Bundesliga table with a resounding 5-0 thrashing of Werder Bremen on Sunday and indeed the visitors became the newly crowned Bundesliga title winners as they now hold an unassailable 16-point lead over second placed Bayern Munich.

This season has been a remarkable campaign for Bayer Leverkusen and manager Xabi Alonso as his side still remain unbeaten on the domestic front and having won 25 of their 29 league matches to date, confidence will be flowing ahead of this upcoming trip to London to take on West Ham.

Bayer Leverkusen have won their last eight games overall on the trot and the German visitors could still be in with a decent shout of claiming the coveted club ‘triple' as Xabi Alonso's side are also in the final of the DFB Pokal domestic cup competition and seemingly have one foot already in the semi-finals of the Europa League as well.

In addition, Bayer Leverkusen have won 18 of their last 21 outings on the road and this sort of form must surely signal the end of West Ham's European adventure this season.

West Ham v Bayer Leverkusen Verdict

West Ham with home advantage will give it a red-hot go on Thursday night but Bayer Leverkusen have been on a different level than the rest of the competition in this season's Bundesliga, even the serial title-winners Bayern Munich, so the visitors look the more likely for the win here.

Therefore, our main bet will be Bayer Leverkusen win @ 1.95

Other side bets worth considering:

Bayer Leverkusen win & Over 2.5 goals @ 2.75

Correct Score: Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 @ 8.50