Ferencvaros vs Bayer Leverkusen prediction: EUROPE: Europa League – Play Offs betting tips on match 2023-03-15 20:00.
Ferencváros know they have a mountain to climb if they’re to reach the quarter-finals of this season’s UEFA Europa League (UEL), after suffering a 2-0 first leg loss away to Bayer Leverkusen in their Round of 16 tie. The reigning Hungarian champions will know hosting the second leg gives them a chance at redemption, especially after beating Leverkusen 1-0 at home when these two featured in Group G of the UEL last season.
The usually reliable Puskás Arena, the venue for this season’s UEL final, highlighted a chink in the armour last time out when Fradi’s 14-game unbeaten streak (W10, D4) at home came to an end with a 2-1 loss to Puskás Akadémia. That doesn’t bode well for Ferencváros, who have failed to overturn 19 of their 22 UEFA competition ties after losing away from home in the first-leg.
Leverkusen will therefore be confident they can reach their second ever UEL quarter-final, after faltering at this stage of the competition last season when losing 4-2 on aggregate to Atalanta. Taking out the first leg at home has usually been all they needed to win the tie overall in UEFA competition, progressing in 12 of the 13 prior occasions when doing so.
They got here by way of a penalty shootout win over Monaco last round after a 3-2 away win in the second leg, breaking a six-game winless run on the road in European competition (D2, L4). Amongst that Monaco win and the first leg result against Ferencváros is also a three-game unbeaten run in the Bundesliga (W2, D1), showing the Eternal Bridesmaids may be peaking at just the right time.
Players to watch: Ferencváros have only lost one of the 19 games in which Ryan Mmaee has scored (W16, D2) since he found the net against Leverkusen in a 2-1 loss during last season’s UEL group stage. Meanwhile, Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz scored the winner that day and has made this competition his own recently, registering 11 goal contributions (G5, A6) across his last nine UEL appearances.
Hot stat: There’s been 13 goals scored after the 75th minute in Ferencváros’ last 16 matches.