Hello and welcome to Telegraph Sport’s live, minute-by-minute of the Europa League quarter-final first leg between Bayer Leverkusen and West Ham. This is West Ham’s third European quarter-final in as many years, something they have never achieved before. Their reward is the toughest test they have had in that time, and possibly in any European fixture since Dinamo Tbilisi famously took them apart in 1981.
Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen are runaway leaders of the Bundesliga and should become champions of Germany for the first time this weekend. They are also unbeaten this season – not just in the league, but in all competitions: P41 W36 D5 L0. No wonder Alonso is Europe’s most wanted manager.
Leverkusen’s invincibility is even more impressive because they have had their head over the precipice a few times. They have scored a number of equalisers and winners in added time. In the last round against Qarabag, they did both – Patrik Schick scored in the 93rd and 98th minutes to turn defeat into euphoric victory.
Even so, West Ham have reason to be quietly confident. Styles makes fights, and their counter-attacking should trouble Leverkusen at times – both tonight and in the second leg at the London Stadium. But they will sorely miss Jarrod Bowen, who is out of tonight’s game with a twisted knee and probably won’t be fit for the second leg.
“We can’t give any dates of when he might be back, unfortunately,” said the West Ham manager David Moyes. “He’s an England international and we know how important he is to our team, so he’ll be a miss for sure. But we have good players who can come in, so we’ll stay positive.
“I see this tie as a great opportunity. We’ve had a good run in Europe and played a lot of good teams. “We know Leverkusen are a very good team, but we believe in our abilities.”
Kick off is at 8pm and we’ll have team news shortly.