Bayer Leverkusen vs Salzburg facts

Bayer Leverkusen will look to revive their UEFA Champions League campaign at home to a Salzburg side who got off the mark at the fourth attempt.

Leverkusen won their first two games of the league phase, 4-0 at Feyenoord and 1-0 at home to AC Milan, but have since collected just one point from fixtures at Brest (1-1) and Liverpool (0-4).

Salzburg were beaten in their first three games, at Sparta Praha (0-3) and at home to Brest (0-4) and GNK Dinamo (0-2) before two Karim Konaté goals helped earn a 3-1 victory at Feyenoord on Matchday 4.

This is the clubs' first meeting, and just Leverkusen's sixth game against a team from Austria.

Form guide

Leverkusen

Record vs Austrian clubs: W3 D2 L0 F14 A3
Home record vs Austrian clubs: W2 D0 L0

Leverkusen's last games against an Austrian club came in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League group stage, when they won 4-0 at Rapid Wien before a 3-0 home success.

The German side's only other home game against Austrian visitors was a 5-1 defeat of Austria Wien in the second leg of the 1987/88 UEFA Cup first round, sealing an aggregate victory by the same scoreline; they went on to win the competition.

Leverkusen have kept clean sheets in three of their five matches against Austrian teams.

Leverkusen are featuring in the Champions League proper for the 14th time – although only the third in eight seasons.

Their most recent campaign came in 2022/23, when they were third in their section behind Porto and Club Brugge and went on to reach the Europa League semi-finals before losing 1-0 on aggregate against Roma.

Xabi Alonso's went one step further in last season's Europa League, finishing first in their section with maximum points before battling past Qarabağ (5-4 on aggregate), West Ham (3-1 agg) and Roma to reach the final, where Atalanta ran out 3-0 winners in Dublin.

The German club won five of their six home games in Europe last season and are unbeaten in ten (W7 D3).

This season's 4-0 loss at Liverpool was only Leverkusen's third in 24 European games (W15 D6).

Alonso guided Die Werkself to a first-ever Bundesliga title in 2023/24 and also oversaw a German Cup victory, only Leverkusen's second in the competition.

Leverkusen have not reached the Champions League knockout rounds since 2016/17.

Salzburg

Record vs German clubs: W6 D5 L9 F23 A42
Away record vs German clubs: W2 D1 L7

Salzburg have not faced a team from Germany since the 2021/22 Champions League round of 16, when they drew 1-1 at home to Bayern München in the first leg before a 7-1 away defeat – their biggest loss against Bundesliga opponents.

A 3-1 home defeat of Wolfsburg in the 2021/22 group stage is Salzburg's only success in their last eight games against teams from Germany (D2 L5).

That is also Salzburg's only win in their last four home matches against Bundesliga visitors (D2 L1).

Having not featured in the group stage between 1994 and 2019, Salzburg are making their sixth successive appearance in the Champions League proper.

The Austrian side were fourth in Group D in 2023/24, picking up four points (W1 D1 L4) in a section that also included Real Sociedad, Inter Milan and Benfica.

Salzburg started this season's Champions League campaign in the third qualifying round, beating Twente (2-1 h, 3-3 a) before overcoming Dynamo Kyiv in the play-offs (2-0 a, 1-1 h).

The win at Feyenoord on Matchday 4 was only Salzburg's third in their last 15 European away games (D5 L7).

That victory was also only Salzburg's fifth in 21 away matches in the Champions League proper (D6 L10) and the second in 12 (D4 L6).

Salzburg, who appointed Pep Lijnders as head coach in May, had their run of ten successive Austrian Bundesliga titles ended by Sturm Graz in 2023/24.

Links and trivia

Janis Blaswich was a Borussia Mönchengladbach team-mate of Granit Xhaka between 2012 and 2015.

Blaswich also played with Jonas Hofmann at Mönchengladbach in 2016/17.

Latest news

Leverkusen

Leverkusen's record in this season's Bundesliga is W5 D5 L1. On Saturday, a Patrik Schick hat-trick inspired them to a 5-2 home success against Heidenheim.

They drew 1-1 in Bochum – their third league draw in a row – on 9 November, conceding a late equaliser after Schick had scored his first league goal of the season.

Leverkusen have conceded 18 goals in their first 11 league games; they let in 24 in 34 in 2023/24.

A 2-3 loss at home to Leipzig on 31 August, a game they had led 2-0, was Leverkusen's first league defeat since 27 May 2023 and ended a 35-match unbeaten Bundesliga run.

On 16 November Florian Wirtz scored twice for Germany in a 7-0 UEFA Nations League win against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Three days later Ecuador's Piero Hincapie was sent off in the 1-0 win in Colombia in FIFA World Cup qualifying.

Jeremie Frimpong had to be substituted at the end of the first half on Saturday after colliding with the Heidenheim goalkeeper.

Victor Boniface suffered a thigh injury on 18 November while on international duty with Nigeria and missed the weekend win.

Nordi Mukiele has been out since 1 November due with a hamstring injury.

Jeanuël Belocian has missed the last six games due to an ankle injury that needed surgery.

Amine Adli – who signed a contract extension until 2028 on 8 November – has been out since Matchday 3 with a fractured fibula.

Salzburg

The Matchday 4 win at Feyenoord is one of only three in Salzburg's last ten matches (D2 L5). On Saturday they conceded twice in the final 20 minutes to lose 1-2 at home to LASK, making it successive Austrian Bundesliga defeats for the first time since the first two games of 2015/16.

That was Salzburg's fourth league defeat of the season; their fourth Austrian Bundesliga reverse in 2023/24 came on 24 April.

Pep Lijnders' side have failed to score in six of their last ten games.

Aleksa Terzić's late goal gave Serbia a 1-1 UEFA Nations League draw in Switzerland on 15 November.

Kamil Piątkowski's first goal for Poland was not enough to prevent a 1-2 home loss against Scotland on 18 November.

Janis Blaswich has not played since Matchday 4 due to a calf injury.

Maurits Kjærgaard suffered an ankle injury in a 0-0 draw at Wolfsberg on 27 October and has been ruled out for several months after an operation.

Leandro Morgalla is expected to be out for several weeks after suffering a thigh injury on duty with Germany's Under-21 side.

Summer signing Takumu Kawamura (knee) is yet to play this season.