Bayer Leverkusen vs Valencia CF - UEFA Champions League

Bayer Leverkusen vs Valencia CF
Champions League - Group E : 3rd round
Date : 19 October 2011 - 20:45 CET
Stadium : BayArena, Leverkusen

Bayer Leverkusen meets Valencia CF on the 3rd match day of UEFA Champions League Group A. Considering that in this group Chelsea FC is the clear favourite and RC Genk the outsider, this match is very important for the second place.

It is not going very well for Bayer Leverkusen these days. The team made a lucky point at Mönchengladbach last Saturday, but the 1:4 derby home defeat against Köln and the 0:3 at Bayern had shown before that this side has a problem. New coach Robin Dutt attracts criticism, as he is changing system and players from game to game, so his team often seems to lose control. As expected Leverkusen got beaten in the first Champions League match at Chelsea 0:2 and beat RC Genk 2:0 in the second match. Central defender Toprak will return from injury.

Also Valencia CF can't really convince this season, could just win one of the last five matches, when beat bottom team Granada 1:0 a week ago. At Mallorca they were up 1:0 last Sunday, until they got the equalizer by a penalty in injury time. However, Valencia has lost just a single match this season (0:1 in Sevilla). In the Champions League they played 0:0 at Genk in the first match and got a 1:1 against Chelsea at home afterwards. Due to an indiscipline midfielder Ever Banega was taken out of the squad by coach Unal Emery. It is unknown, if he will be back in Leverkusen.

Head to Head :
No matches between both teams so far.

Recent Performance :
Bayer Leverkusen : Lose / Lose / Win / Win / Draw
Valencia : Draw / Lose / Draw / Win / Draw

Possible Line-Ups :
Bayer Leverkusen : Leno - Balitsch, Toprak, Reinartz, Kadlec, Rolfes, L. Bender, Castro, Schürrle, Sam, Kießling.
Valencia : Diego Alves - Bruno, Rami, Victor Ruiz, Jordi Alba, Albelda, Topal, Hernandez, Canales, Mathieu, Soldado.

Betting Tip/Prediction :
An important match for both teams. Leverkusen just doesn't seem strong enough at the moment to beat a team like Valencia. Even so both teams have a long tradition in Champions League and both made it to the final, they have never played against each other. Valencia had been to the final in 2000 and 2001, but lost both times against Bayern and Real Madrid. One year later Leverkusen stood in the final, but also lost against Real Madrid.
My prediction for this game is a DRAW