Bayer Leverkusen vs Celje prediction 16.09.2026 | Europa League

Three years ago, Bayer Leverkusen reached the Europa League final, but lost to Atalanta. For the next two seasons, they were part of the Champions League, but now the team from BayArena is returning to the continental second level, where they could have a solid chance of winning a trophy. Bayer Leverkusen opened the 2026/27 campaign with an easy victory in the DFB Pokal, but since then, Carles Martinez's team has collected only four points in three Bundesliga rounds. In the most recent outing, they played 2-2 on the road against Augsburg. The visitors finished with 63% ball possession and 30 shots on goal and probably deserved more, but ultimately needed a late goal to salvage a point.

Bayer Leverkusen's head coach, Carles Martinez, was satisfied with one point in the match against Augsburg. After the match, he stated, "We were able to create chances, but didn't finish them, which isn't good enough. Nevertheless, we were able to reset after conceding twice and worked hard to score an equalizer. In the end, it was a deserved draw."

Nathan Tella, Tim Oermann, Jonas Hofmann, Kennet Eichhorn, Montrell Culbreath, and Victor Boniface are unavailable for Wednesday's tie against Celje.

After Conference League quarterfinal and 1/8 final in the last two seasons, Celje will try to do the same in the Europa League, too. However, they are realistically among the worst teams in the competition, and it would be a big surprise if Celje sneak into the top 24 teams. The Slovenian team has been terrible lately, with four defeats in the last five matches across all competitions. Last weekend, Celje lost 2-1 on the road against Bravo. The visitors led for most of the game, but they conceded two quick goals late in the second half and went home empty-handed. 

Celje is not playing well, and according to the Slovenian media, the board may sack Vitor Campelos before the game against Bayer Leverkusen. The candidate is Zoran Zeljkovic, Koper's current head coach. It remains to be seen whether a change happens before Wednesday. 

Celje have almost a full squad for the game at BayArena. Andrej Kotnik and Jost Pisek should be the only ones unavailable for the clash against Bayer Leverkusen.