This is the first European meeting between Bayer Leverkusen and West Ham United – Bayer last faced English opponents in Europe in the 2016-17 UEFA Champions League group stages against Spurs (0-0 at home, won 1-0 away).

West Ham United have already eliminated German opponents in the UEFA Europa League this season, beating SC Freiburg 5-1 on aggregate in the last 16. They did, however, lose the away leg of their knockout match 1-0 in Freiburg.

Bayer Leverkusen are unbeaten in the UEFA Europa League this season (W7 D1), scoring 24 goals in their eight games. Only in 2001-02 have they won more games in a major European season (8) while they’ve only netted more goals in 1994-95 (26) and 2001-02 (29) than they have this campaign.

This is West Ham’s fifth UEFA Europa League match against German opposition this season, with all four others coming against SC Freiburg. They are just the third English team to play 5+ games against German teams in a major European season, along with Liverpool in the 1972-73 UEFA Cup and Manchester City in the 2022-23 UEFA Champions League, both of whom won those competitions that season.

Bayer Leverkusen have won all four of their home UEFA Europa League matches this season, scoring 3+ goals in each match (17 in total). The only team in Europa League history to win five in a row and score 3+ goals in each game were Chelsea in 2018-19, while no German side has ever scored more than 17 goals at home in a Europa League season.

Mohammed Kudus has scored five goals in each of last two major European campaigns (5 for Ajax in 2022-23, 5 for West Ham this season). Kudus is only the third Ghanaian player to score 10+ goals in major European competitions, along with Anthony Yeboah (17) and Michael Essien (11).

Among managers to manage at least 15 games in the UEFA Europa League, only Diego Simeone (81%, P26 W21) has a better win ratio than Bayer Leverkusen’s Xabi Alonso (P16 W11, 69%), while Alonso’s side is averaging 2.4 goals per game (38 in 16), the best of any manager with 15+ games in the competition.

Patrik Schick has scored in each of his last four UEFA Europa League appearances for Bayer Leverkusen, netting five goals with four coming as a substitute. Only Rodrigo Palacio in 2012-13 for Inter (5) has ever netted more sub goals in a Europa League season, while Ulf Kirsten is the only Bayer player to score in five consecutive major European appearances, doing so twice (5 in 1993-94 & 5 in 1998-99).