West Ham United and Bayer Leverkusen Clash in Epic Second Leg of Europa League Quarter-Final: Keys to Watch

The second leg of the Europa League quarter-final between West Ham United and Bayer Leverkusen is set to kick off at 20:00 BST on Thursday. Here are some key facts about the match:

West Ham have a history of struggling in the second leg of knockout ties in European competitions, with five previous instances where they trailed by two or more goals going into the match. However, they managed to progress in the first two instances, but were defeated in the most recent two.

On the other hand, Bayer Leverkusen have a strong record of progressing from all 13 previous occasions where they won the first leg of a two-legged European knockout tie by two or more goals.

When playing at home, West Ham have won three out of their last four games against German opposition, with their only loss coming in this season’s Europa League match against SC Freiburg. They have already beaten Freiburg twice this season.

Bayer Leverkusen, however, have struggled in away games against English sides, having only won one out of their 10 matches. Their lone victory came in their last visit to the capital, where they defeated Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 in November 2016.

In the first leg of this tie, Bayer Leverkusen dominated with 33 shots compared to West Ham’s single shot. This marked the biggest shot difference (32) between two sides in a match in the history of the Europa League. Florian Wirtz of Bayer Leverkusen and James Ward-Prowse of West Ham are among the top three players for most chances created in the Europa League this season, with Wirtz leading the way with 25 chances created.