"Leverkusen have an outstanding team"

Julian Nagelsmann on…

…Bayer Leverkusen: "They've tinkered with their basic formation recently and the position of the attackers varies. The match against Bremen was the catalyst for the club. Leverkusen have an outstanding team. The environment surrounding the club remained calm in their difficult spell."

…the personnel situation: "Adam Szalai will miss out against Leverkusen. He's still not 100 percent fit. But it's nothing dramatic. Florian Grillitsch is doing better now. He'll be available again against Leverkusen. There'll be another rotation of players on Saturday."

…the DFB Cup tie against Leipzig: "It can sometimes happen that you don't give everything and unfortunately that happened to us in the 20 minutes after half-time against Leipzig. We showed very little emotion during that period and didn't stick to our plan. That's why we deserved to lose the match."

The opponent's form:

Leverkusen sit in 12th place, with 11 points on the board after nine rounds of matches. They made a poor start but have bounced back recently, following up a 6-2 win at Werder Bremen in the league with a 5-0 victory at Borussia Mönchengladbach in the DFB Cup.  

Head-to-head record:

TSG have only won four of the 21 previous meetings between the teams, while Leverkusen have emerged as the victors on 14 occasions. Hoffenheim have suffered more defeats against the Werkself than any other Bundesliga side.

Match facts and statistics »