Bayer Leverkusen‘s 2-1 victory against St. Pauli on Saturday ensured they remained competitive in the Bundesliga title chase. This marked their fifth consecutive win, which includes a commanding 5-0 triumph over Salzburg on the fifth matchday of the UEFA Champions League. As a result, the German team stands sixth in the league phase after five games (three wins, one draw, one loss), trailing second-placed Inter Milan by just three points.
This season, the Black and Reds have already triumphed over Italian teams, having secured a 1-0 victory against AC Milan on matchday two. Under Xabi Alonso’s management, they seem to reserve their best performances for European fixtures at BayArena, winning seven of their last eight home games in UEFA competitions with one draw. However, this impressive record faces a challenge as they have lost all three of their previous head-to-head encounters.
Inter Milan continued their strong form with a 3-1 victory over Parma on Friday, extending their unbeaten streak to 13 matches (11 wins, two draws) as they aim to contend in a closely contested Serie A title race. The Nerazzurri are also excelling in Europe, entering the sixth matchday as one of only three undefeated teams in this UCL season (four wins, one draw).
All four victories have been achieved without conceding a goal and consecutively, as they aim to become the first Italian team since Juventus in the 2012/13 season to secure five straight UCL matches without letting in a goal.
Should they accomplish this, they would set a new precedent, as no team has maintained a clean sheet across the first six fixtures of a single UCL campaign. With five consecutive wins on the road, Simone Inzaghi’s squad can approach their travels with optimism. However, having secured just one victory from their last four away UCL encounters (D2, L1), it indicates that Inter are still striving to reach peak performance in European away games.
Key confrontation: Florian Wirtz netted Leverkusen’s first goal in the sixth minute over the weekend and has opened the scoring in three UCL matches this season, twice within the initial ten minutes. His challenge will be to get past Yann Sommer in Inter’s goal, who boasts nine clean sheets in 12 UCL appearances for the club—the highest percentage (75) for any goalkeeper with 10+ matches in this tournament.
Noteworthy statistic: In five of Leverkusen’s last seven matches at home, a goal has been scored within the first ten minutes.
