Bayer Leverkusen v West Ham United
Pre-season match, BayArena, Saturday 5 August 2023, 1.30pm CEST (12.30pm)
West Ham United’s 2023/24 pre-season schedule concludes in Germany as the Irons travel to face Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen.
A sixth match of a varied summer puts the Hammers against Xabi Alonso’s side who, like West Ham, will compete in the UEFA Europa League this season.
Of the five pre-season games so far, the Irons have won three, securing victories against National League side Boreham Wood, A-League team Perth Glory and fellow Premier League outfit Tottenham Hotspur. A match with Dagenham & Redbridge ended in a 2-2 draw while the last time out saw the Irons beaten by Ligue 1 side Stade Rennais.
Leverkusen, meanwhile, are preparing for their fourth pre-season fixture. Consecutive defeats at the hands of Paderborn and Real Sociedad, respectively, were followed with a 2-1 win away to French team Marseille on Wednesday.
Tickets…
Tickets for this match are on sale to Season Ticket Holders, priced at £9 in all categories. Click here to buy now.
Travel…
If you have a ticket, West Ham United supporters can reach Leverkusen by taking the Eurostar from London to Bruxelles-Midi, which takes just over two hours, and then catching a train to Cologne Central Station on the Intercity Express rail line, which will again take a little under two hours.
Supporters should note however that, due to railway works, no trains from either Cologne or Düsseldorf will be serving Leverkusen station. Attending fans are advised to visit the Deutsche Bahn website if planning a journey from Cologne or Düsseldorf is necessary.
Should you wish to fly, both London Stansted and London Heathrow regularly offer flights to Cologne Bonn Airport, which is just a 20-minute drive from Leverkusen’s BayArena. Flights from Stansted to Cologne depart at 08.35am BST and 2.15pm BST on Friday 4 August, while one will also fly from Heathrow at 2.45pm BST.
If you fancy driving, take the Channel Tunnel or ferry across to Calais and follow the A16 onto the E40, which takes you through Ghent, Brussels and past Liège. Join the A4 into Cologne and keep left onto the A1 and follow directions to the BayArena.
How To Follow…
Saturday’s match will be available to watch on the West Ham United YouTube channel, with the live action commencing roughly ten minutes before kick-off.
Coverage will also be available through our live match centre, bringing you all the action from Leverkusen. Live coverage will begin 90 minutes before kick-off.
Highlights and full reaction will also be viewable at whufc.com across Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday morning.
Team News…
For the first time this pre-season, manager David Moyes will have a full crop of senior players available to choose from for the match at Bayer Leverkusen.
Michail Antonio and Ben Johnson joined up with their Hammers colleagues for training earlier this week, after their respective international schedules with Jamaica and England U21s took the duo into July, and both could earn their first minutes of the new campaign.
Lucas Paquetá earned his first outing of the 2023/24 schedule last Saturday, at Stade Rennais, and the Brazilian playmaker will be hoping for even more match action in Germany.
Academy of Football graduate Divin Mubama has remained with the senior squad throughout pre-season and will be eager to make the most of the last opportunity of the summer schedule, before the start of the competitive campaign.
Opposition…
For Bayer Leverkusen fans, it is not a happy thought to consider what might have been had Xabi Alonso not taken charge.
Appointed manager in October 2022, the iconic Spanish midfielder stepped into his maiden senior coaching job with his new employer second from bottom of the Bundesliga table after eight matches. By the end of the season, Leverkusen were sixth, earning qualification for the UEFA Europa League again, and were in the competition’s semi-final stage where only a single goal saw them eliminated by Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma.
Now building for his first full season in charge, Alonso is putting his stamp on Bayer Leverkusen in the transfer market. A big-money departure in Moussa Diaby to Aston Villa has freed up space in the squad, with midfielder Granit Xhaka joining from Arsenal, striker Victor Boniface signing from Union Saint-Gilloise, and winger Jonas Hohmann switching from Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Those acquisitions come on top of the shrewd free transfer of Spanish left-back Álex Grimaldo from Benfica, all of which is setting Leverkusen up for a productive season in the Bundesliga.
Leverkusen have finished in a European position in the Bundesliga in each of the five seasons. Only on three occasions, in 2016/17 and 2008/2009, have the side finished outside the top seven in the last 26 seasons.
Yet, for the number of times Leverkusen have come within touching distance of glory, league titles have eluded them. On five occasions, they have been runners-up in the Bundesliga, but never claimed the prestigious honour themselves.
The last trophy came in the 1992/93 season, when the side won the DFB-Pokal, one of two pieces of silverware in their history; the other coming in 1987/88 when the team lifted the UEFA Cup.
With a serial winner as a player in Alonso at the helm, everyone associated with Bayer Leverkusen will be hoping that changes sooner rather than later.
Previous Meetings…
Interestingly, Saturday will be the first time that West Ham and Bayer Leverkusen have played each other. This weekend will also mark the Hammers’ first visit to the BayArena.
Despite being the first time West Ham have played Leverkusen specifically, the Club holds a storied history in Germany and against German clubs, stretching all the way back to 1924 when the Irons became the first team to visit the country following the end of World War 1.
Forty years on, West Ham won our first European silverware with a win over German opposition. Ron Greenwood’s side defeated 1860 Munich 2-0 at Wembley Stadium, thanks to a brace from Alan Sealey, to lift the 1964/65 European Cup Winners’ Cup.
The following year, in the same competition, West Ham saw off 1. FC Magdeburg in the quarter-finals before falling to Borussia Dortmund in the last four.
In the 1975/76 Cup Winners’ Cup, West Ham would once again reach the final after defeating Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-finals. However, the Hesse-based side would get one over the Irons almost 50 years on with a semi-final aggregate win over David Moyes’ men in the 2021/22 UEFA Europa League last four.
