Leverkusen vs Borussia Mönchengladbach Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Dec 08, 2015 @ 05:36 pm

Bayer Leverkusen are seriously struggling of late with two draws and one defeat in the past three matches. They’ve slipped to 8^th in the Bundesliga and have scored the least amount of goals (19) out of anyone in the top eight. The most recent defeat to Hertha Berlin was already a tough encounter after going 1-0 down after 7 minutes but matters weren’t helped when Sebastian Boesnisch was handed a straight red card. Despite the setback after only 17 minutes, Leverkusen did find an equalizer through Javier Hernandez but the extra man advantage took its toll and Hertha Berlin eventually got the winner on the hour mark. Despite averaging just above 1.3 points per game in the league, Leverkusen only find themselves five points off their opponents on Saturday who are sitting pretty in 3^rd.

It has been a sensational turnaround for Monchengladbach after a disastrous start to the campaign which saw five consecutive league defeats and a new manager. Now they sit 3^rd in the table and have just beaten the reigning Bundesliga champions to hand them a first league defeat of the season. Confidence will be soaring through the camp and especially for the forwards as Monchengladbach have scored 10 goals in the past three games. They hit four past Sevilla a fortnight ago before travelling to Hoffenheim and scoring another three in the league. Pepe Guardiola’s side had no answer to Monchengladbach’s brilliance in the second half as they scored three goals in the space of 14 minutes. Franck Ribery got a late consolation five minutes coming on as a substitute but even that couldn’t dampen the spectator’s celebrations as they were euphoric over their side’s performance. It was a surprise when they stormed the Bundesliga last year to qualify for the Champions League and should they maintain their current form it will be on the cards for another year.

The last time a clean sheet was on show at the BayArena between these two was back in May 2009 when Leverkusen stormed to a 5-0 victory. Since then they’ve met six times in Leverkusen and it has produced 27 goals. Monchengladbach are unbeaten in six games away from home whilst Leverkusen have lost just twice all season at home. Raffael has been involved in 14 of Monchengladbach’s 31 goals this year with six goals and eight assists.

Leverkusen are now without the services of defender Sebastian Boesnich after his red card against Hertha Berlin and Wendell is likely to step in. Lars Bender continues to be on the treatment table and the midfielder has been missing since late October. It seems extremely unlikely that the visitors will alter much from the side that defeated Bayern Munich. They have a number of casualties with Ibrahima Traore, Andre Hahn and Patrick Herrmann notable players out.

Bayer Leverkusen

Stats: W-6 L-6 D-3

Recent Form - LWDDL

Borussia Monchengladbach

Stats: W-8 L-5 D-2

Recent Form - DWWDW

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Bayer Leverkusen (4-2-3-1) – Leno, Wendell, Toprak, Tah, Donati, Kampl, Kramer, Mehmedi, Calhanoglu, Bellarabi, Hernandez

Borussia Monchengladbach (4-5-1) – Sommer, Korb, Elvedi, Christensen, Nordveit, Wendt, Johnson, Xhaka, Dahoud, Raffael, Stindl

Injury List/Suspended Players

Bayer Leverkusen – Boesnich (sus), Bender (inj), Jedvaj (inj)
Borussia Monchengladbach – Herrmann (inj), Schulz (inj), Traore (inj), Stranzl (inj), Hahn (inj), Dominguez (inj)

League Positions