Onazi eyes Bayer Leverkusen’s scalp

Lazio were beaten 3-0 by Bayer Leverkusen at the Bay Arena on Wednesday night in the Champions League, missing out on the lucrative group stages of the competition. Schmidt indicated that an away goal was crucial, but despite many chances in last week’s game, Bayer couldn’t get that away goal.

Revenge would be sweet for Maccabi, who were knocked out of both the Champions League and later the Europa League by Basel two seasons ago and then saw the Swiss swoop for their coach Paulo Sousa.

In their first meeting at Stadio Olimpico, Lazio were lifted by Balde Keita and his goal in the 77th minute of the match.

Defeat for Lazio, meanwhile, would mean that Serie A has only two group stage representatives for the second season in a row.

“Now at Lazio I have a lot of responsibility in the team but I’m up to the task”, he said.

Having originally lost the first leg 1-0 to the Italians, the German outfit produced a confident display on home soil to seal a 3-1 aggregate win over Stefano Pioli’s men.

The absence of Biglia has left the biggest hole to fill, though, with Danilo Cataldi and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic believed to be in contention to replace the Argentine.

However, a minor setback last week with the 1-0 loss to Lazio!

Germany forward Miroslav Klose is ruled out with a thigh injury he picked up in the opening game against Leverkusen. For Bayer, Bayer will be without their new signing in Charles Aranguiz for the entire year with a ruptured Achilles tendon.

Astana are 90 minutes from making history as they look to become the first Kazakh team to qualify for the main competition.

Leverkusen midfielder Christoph Kramer insists he and his team-mates are fully focused on their midweek clash with Lazio, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bayern München.

Bellarabi eventually got on the scoresheet with Lazio pressing late on, Kiessling heading a long ball on for substitute Julian Brandt who played in the German worldwide to finish.