I believe there is some really good news for West Ham ahead of our huge double-header against Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League.
There were moans and groans from the West Ham fans when we drew Bayer Leverkusen out the hat in the quarter-final draw for the Europa League last eight out in Nyon yesterday.
The Europa League quarter-final clashes with the Bundesliga outfit will be our most important two games of the season so far.
Leverkusen are runaway leaders in the Bundesliga, and currently hold a 10-point lead over second-placed Bayern Munich.
The Hammers are performing well ourselves, and are currently sitting in seventh spot in the Premier League table.
Edson Alvarez will miss the first-leg clash with Leverkusen, and that’s an obvious blow for us, but I feel like we still have a very good chance of beating the German side over two legs…
Boost for West Ham and a big concern for Bayer Leverkusen ahead of quarter-final
Just three days after the second-leg Europa League clash with the Hammers at the London Stadium, Bayer Leverkusen face a really tough trip to Borussia Dortmund just three days later.
The Dortmund game will be their 30th of the season in the Bundesliga, so they’ll have just four remaining after that.
The beauty of this is that whatever happens between now and then will be good news for West Ham. Should Leverkusen win all of their domestic games up to the Dortmund clash, there’s a decent chance that the game at Signal Iduna Park could be the one where they can lift the league title trophy with a win.
However, should they struggle and Bayern Munich keep winning, there is no doubt that they’ll be under pressure to get a big result away at Dortmund.
The other thing in our favour of course is that Alonso’s side are unbeaten in the Bundesliga this season. They will obviously want to finish the campaign as invincible. No team has ever done that in Germany and the only sides in the top five European leagues to have done it are Arsenal, AC Milan and Juventus.
History is definitely attainable for Alonso and his team this year, and that should really work in the Hammers’ favour.
In stark contrast, West Ham have a a local derby against Crystal Palace following the Europa League clash with Bayer Leverkusen.
The Europa League has to be priority number one for David Moyes and his players between now and the end of the season. However, it’s obvious that the same cannot be said for Xabi Alonso and his team.
I think that West Ham might just have a really good chance to progress through to the semi-finals against Bayer Leverkusen next month.
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