Xabi Alonso
LeverkusenDavid Moyes
West Ham United
Meeting Highlights…ABOUT THE MATCH
A physically strong team with great individual quality. Their great experience in Europe, which also gives them the necessary calmness in difficult periods of the game. We need to play with patience but a lot of tempo tomorrow, and have a good balance between our attack and defence. Only by doing that will we manage to get a good result in the second leg in London.
…WE ALL FEEL CLOSELY CONNECTED
We all feel closely connected as one with Bayer AG. Everyone in the company gives us tremendous support. Then there are our great fans. We in the club are working to give everyone in the city and in the company even more joy at the end of the season. We can take another important step towards that against West Ham tomorrow.
…INJURY REPORT
Matej Kovar will again start in goal in the quarter-final first leg at the BayArena. Only Adam Hlozek, who sustained an ankle injury against Union Berlin last weekend, is unavailable to face West Ham.
Xabi Alonso
Manager on Leverkusen…ABOUT THE MATCH
A physically strong team with great individual quality. Their great experience in Europe, which also gives them the necessary calmness in difficult periods of the game. We need to play with patience but a lot of tempo tomorrow, and have a good balance between our attack and defence. Only by doing that will we manage to get a good result in the second leg in London.
…WE ALL FEEL CLOSELY CONNECTED
We all feel closely connected as one with Bayer AG. Everyone in the company gives us tremendous support. Then there are our great fans. We in the club are working to give everyone in the city and in the company even more joy at the end of the season. We can take another important step towards that against West Ham tomorrow.
…INJURY REPORT
Matej Kovar will again start in goal in the quarter-final first leg at the BayArena. Only Adam Hlozek, who sustained an ankle injury against Union Berlin last weekend, is unavailable to face West Ham.
David Moyes
Manager on West Ham United...OPPURTUNITY
We’ve had a pretty good run in Europe, we’ve played a lot of good teams in Europe and as things go, the challenge we’ve got against a team who are 16 points clear in the Bundesliga is a big one. But one hopefully that we can rise to and perform well.
...PREPARATION
I challenge the players to be better and that's why we'll need big leadership - and I've used that word a lot in some games in recent weeks. We'll need the players to show a level of composure, tactical understanding, with the knowledge that we're in the first game in a two-legged tie away from home, against a side who are unbeaten in 41 games this season. We have to try and be able to handle that as well.
...LUCAS PAQUETA
He's been an important part of the side, he's a well-established Brazilian international and he can bring attributes to the games which are really important to us. You pull your hair out at times, but overall he's a pleasure to have and a pleasure to work with. He's got some individual ability which you don't see often, but when you do you recognise it greatly and I think most people recognise that he's got some great talent. We have to get him at his best, because at his best it gives us a greater chance.