Bayer Leverkusen vs VfB Stuttgart Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Oct 14, 2015 @ 02:23 pm

The BayArena will still be catching its breath after the stunning game that took centre stage midweek in the Champions League where Leverkusen drew 4-4 with Roma despite leading 2-0 at one stage and also trailing 4-2. Stuttgart earned a crucial 1-0 win over Ingolstadt to propel them out of the relegation zone.

Leverkusen stormed into an early 2-0 lead when Javier Hernandez scored a brace but they were pegged back at the end of the first half when Daniele De Rossi was the unlikely scorer on two occasions to level proceedings. Then Leverkusen amazingly fell behind in the second half after conceding twice but they went onto score 2 late goals in the space of a couple of minutes to grab a 4-4 draw. It earned them their third consecutive draw after back-to-back draws against Augsburg and Hamburg in the Bundesliga. They’ve lost ground on the Champions League places and sit in 7^th, just 1 point behind Wolfsburg who currently occupies the final Champions League qualification spot. 

Stuttgart handed Ingolstadt a first away defeat of the season and were grateful for a missed penalty by the opposition in the 4^th minute which they duly took full advantage of. It ended a run of 4 straight league defeats at home after going 6 unbeaten at the end of last season in front of the home supporters. Goals are often on show when Stuttgart are the visiting side as 19 goals have been shared between both sides in their past 5 games in all competitions. The same problems continued to haunt the Stuttgart forwards against Ingolstadt with Timo Werner wasteful in front of goal or hesitant when an opportunity presented itself but thankfully Daniel Didavi’s second half strike earned them a crucial 3 points.

Leverkusen haven’t tasted victory since the end of September with a 3-0 win over Werder Bremen so a visit from an opponent they’ve defeated 5 in their last 6 meetings at the BayArena could end the drought. Leverkusen have previously scored 4 times this season and staggeringly not taken all 3 points when they lost 5-4 to Wolfsburg in February this year. Stuttgart haven’t beaten Leverkusen in 11 attempts.

The home side welcome back Wendell from suspension after he picked up a yellow card against Augsburg which subsequently saw him miss the Hamburg trip whilst Stuttgart have Serey Die out through suspension after he collected two yellow cards in the victory over Ingolstadt. Robbie Kruse is close to returning to full fitness after a 4 week calf injury but is ineligible against his parent club regardless.

Bayern Leverkusen

Stats: W-4 L-3 D-2

Recent Form - WLDDD

Stuttgart

Stats: W-2 L-6 D-1

Recent Form - LWLDW

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Bayern Leverkusen (4-4-1-1) – Leno, Donati, Tah, Papadopoulos, Wendell, Kampl, Toprak, Kramer, Bellarabi, Calhanoglu, Hernandez

Stuttgart (4-2-3-1) – Tyton, Klein, Sunjic, Baumgartl, Insua, Rupp, Kliment, Harnik, Didavi, Maxim, Werner

Injury List/Suspended Players

Bayern Leverkusen – Hilbert (inj).

Stuttgart – Serey Die (sus), Kruse (ine), Gentner (inj), Ginczek (inj), Kostic (inj)

League Positions