Next Wednesday, 22nd of October 2014, an attack-driven Bayer Leverkusen will entertain a rock solid Zenit St. Petersburg at the BayArena for the group stage’s round three of the 2014-15 UEFA Champions League, on a match with an unpredictable outcome between two top quality teams that have already showed what they are capable of so far this season.

The arrival of the Portuguese manager André Villas-Boas to the helm of Zenit St.Petersburg has definitely marked the beginning of a new chapter on the history of the club. The team from the city founded by Peter The Great is at the top of the Russian Premier League and they remain undefeated after ten matches. André Villas-Boas’ Zenit are also displaying some quality on the international chapter and not even their home draw against AS Monaco serves to erase the quality they displayed, for example, when they visited SL Benfica during the first round of the group stage.

Nevertheless, Zenit are currently on a three-match row without a win. Last weekend they weren’t able to get anything better than a draw from the always complicated travel to Krasnodar, but, at the end of match, both Villas-Boas and Zenit’s players were clearly infuriated by the alleged influence the referee had on the match’s outcome.

For the BayArena clash, the Portuguese manager is not yet certain if he will be able to rely on Oleg Shatov’s contribution since he is still struggling with a recent injury.

As for Bayer Leverkusen, after a quality season start, the team seems to be losing their stamina, especially on a domestic level where they haven’t won a single match for almost a month. After an unexpected and heavy defeat at the hands of Wolfsburg, the boys from Roger Schmidt embarked on a somewhat inconsistent period in the Bundesliga, as they have collected three draws during their last respective matches. Despite that somehow shaky moment, Bayer have managed to smash SL Benfica by 3-1 when they met at BayArena early this month.

For the clash against Zenit, Roger Schmidt will probably not be able to count on Simon Rolfes, who remains sidelined due to injury.

Although it is hard to name any favourites for the match, Zenit might be able to cause a major upset to the German side if they manage to somehow replicate their Lisbon performance against SL Benfica from last month.

Bayer Leverkusen

Stats: W-2 L-0 D-3

Recent Form - DDWDW

Zenit

Stats: W-2 L-0 D-3

Recent Form - DDDWW

Possible Line-ups

Bayer Leverkusen  (4-4-2) - Leno - Hilbert - Spahic - Toprak - Jedvaj - Reinartz - Bender - Hakan Çalhanoglu - Son - Bellarabi - Kiessling

Zenit (4-3-3) - Lodygin - Smolnikov - Garay - Lombaerts - Criscito - Javi Garcia - Witsel - Fayzulin - Danny - Hulk - Rondon

Prediction

Bayer Leverkusen 0 Zenit 1