Bayer Leverkusen vs Lokomotiv Moscow Predictions

Bayer Leverkusen’s confidence took at battering at the weekend following their harrowing 0-4 defeat at Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, though Die Werkself will need to pick themselves up quickly for the visit of Lokomotiv Moscow on Wednesday.

Leverkusen had started the 2019/20 in positive fashion before their Dortmund dismantling, winning three and drawing one of their first four competitive fixtures of the season in league and cup.

Just like last season, the goals have been flowing freely at both ends in Leverkusen’s matches this term – in fact, an average of 3.6 goals hit the net per 90 minutes across their five matches since the summer.

We expect more of the same and similar excitement when Bayer face a relatively green Lokomotiv Moscow team on Wednesday.

The inexperienced Russian outfit are competing in the Champions League Group Stage for back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2004, and Loko finished bottom of what was one of the weakest looking sections in 2018/19 behind Porto, Schalke and Galatasaray, losing five of their six matches overall.

Lokomotiv conceded eight times in their three UCL group away games last season, and though the club attempted to reorganise defensively over the summer in terms of personnel, the results of their restructure haven’t exactly been promising.

Loko have played 10 competitive fixtures so far this season, and despite a series of largely positive results, they managed to keep just two clean sheets.

On Wednesday, Lokomotiv pit their wits and worryingly leaky defence against a Leverkusen team that has lost only three of their last 17 games at the BayArena, and it’s worth noting that Bayer scored at least twice in seven of the last 11 of those contests.

Averaging 3.6 goals per 90 minutes, Bayer Leverkusen’s games have been consistently exciting this season and in keeping with their impressive scoring stats at the BayArena.

When you throw Lokomotiv’s defensive troubles in on top of those numbers, it makes sense to expect a high-scoring game in Germany on Wednesday. With that in mind, we like the look over 2.5 goals for Levekusen’s Champions League meeting with Loko this week.

Moscow conceded three goals or more in half of their six Champions League Group matches last season, and we’re tipping them to concede three more in our correct score prediction. We’re backing Leverkusen to ease to a 3-1 win.