Skip to content

Villas-Boas' Zenit full of respect for Leverkusen

Alexander Demianchuk / Reuters

BERLIN - Andre Villas-Boas has said his Zenit St Petersburg side need to be wary of their Champions League trip to Bayer Leverkusen despite their strong recent record in Germany.

Zenit's 2-1 win at Borussia Dortmund in last season's round of 16 was their third victory in their last five visits to Germany, although a 4-2 home defeat against Dortmund meant they exited the competition on aggregate.

There is all to play for at the BayArena on Wednesday with just a point separating joint Group C leaders Zenit, who are level with Monaco, and third-placed Leverkusen.

"(Leverkusen) is a very, very good team who will require a lot of us," the former Porto and Chelsea coach told SID, an AFP subsidiary, in a conference call.

The 37-year-old says his team will need a disciplined performance against Roger Schmidt's side to take anything from Leverkusen as they look to defend their status at the top of the group.

"That's obviously our goal, then we'll be in a really good position after three games," said Villas-Boas.

In Leverkusen, the Zenit coach will have the services of Belgian international Axel Witsel who played 25 minutes of their Russian Premier League draw with FK Krasnodar after an ankle injury.

"I am fully fit again, said the 25-year-old, who said Zenit need to watch out for Leverkusen's potent strike-force including South Korea's Son Heung-Min and Germany's Karim Bellarabi.

"If we produce our best performance, we'll be able to hold our own in Leverkusen."

There are certainly weaknesses in Leverkusen's defence to exploit as they threw away a three-goal lead to draw 3-3 at VfB Stuttgart on Saturday which left them sixth in the table after Son scored two goals in the opening ten minutes.

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox