Bayer Leverkusen vs Monaco - Schmidt hoping Leverkusen can end winless streak

Posted Tuesday, December 06, 2016 by PA

Roger Schmidt hopes Bayer Leverkusen can end a successful Champions League group stage by breaking their duck against Monaco.

Both teams have already qualified, with Monaco winning Group E ahead of the German side.

It will be the fourth time the teams have met in little over two years and the sixth time in total, with Leverkusen still chasing their first win.

Schmidt's side looked certain to end that sequence in the reverse fixture only for Kamil Glik to earn Monaco a point with a 94th-minute equaliser.

The Leverkusen manager told a press conference reported by uefa.com: "It's about time we beat Monaco. We were incredibly unfortunate to lose to them twice (two seasons ago), and we were unlucky to only get a draw from our last game against them.

"We want to enjoy our last Champions League game of the calendar year. After qualifying for the knockout stages, we're not under quite as much pressure as usual. We want to focus on our game and get a positive result in front of our fans."

Victory is much needed for the German side, who have gone four games without a win and are struggling with a mounting injury list.

Kevin Kampl, Lars Bender, Kevin Volland, Karim Bellarabi and Admir Mehmedi will all miss Wednesday's game, but Omer Toprak and Jonathan Tah are fit.

Leverkusen have not helped themselves by missing all four penalties they have been awarded in the Bundesliga this season.

Javier Hernandez was the latest to try his luck, seeing his spot-kick saved in a 1-1 draw with Freiburg.

The Mexican has not scored for more than two months but Schmidt is not concerned.

He said: "I haven't taken (Hernandez) to one side to speak to him. Every striker goes through a difficult patch, and Javier just so happens to be going through one at the moment. I know it's only a matter of time before he starts scoring again.

"We haven't really discussed our recent penalty record. There's been no need to. We've missed the last four, but the chances of us missing five in a row are much less likely."

Monaco, in contrast, are in excellent form, with six wins and one draw from their last seven games. They thumped Bastia 5-0 at the weekend to stay within three points of Nice at the top of Ligue 1.