David Moyes’ West Ham side face their toughest test of the 2023/24 season on Thursday night, as they take on Xabi Alonso’s unbeaten Bayer Leverkusen side.
The East Londoners are without top scorer Jarrod Bowen through injury, and he’s joined on the sidelines by Kalvin Phillips and first-choice goalkeeper, Alphonse Areola.
Influential midfielder, Edson Alvarez, is suspended, meaning that Moyes and his squad are going to have an uphill battle to get anything out of their first leg in Germany.
That said, the Scot has had a wonderful European record over the past few seasons with the Hammers, and if his side are able to keep things tight and give themselves something to play for in the second leg at the London Stadium next week, the outcome of this one might not be the foregone conclusion that many appear to be predicting.
One only has to look at the way Qarabag already troubled them in the competition, albeit they got out of jail late on.
West Ham team to face Bayer Leverkusen
Lukasz Fabianski takes charge between the sticks, and he’ll be protected by a back four of Vladimir Coufal, Kurt Zouma, Dinos Mavropanos and Aaron Cresswell.
Tomas Soucek may be required to do a job centrally in the absence of Alvarez, his commanding presence potentially a huge asset for the visitors.
Lucas Paqueta, James Ward-Prowse are a brilliant, fluid and highly-technical duo, and they’ll be joined in midfield by Emerson.
Mo Kudus should be given license to terrorise the Leverkusen back line, with Michail Antonio playing off him and in a more direct centre-forward role.