The frustration from the weekend wasn’t over as Bayer Leverkusen were dealt another blow. Kyriakos Papadopoulos had to cut short his training session on Monday morning after an unlucky fall left him with a serious shoulder injury. He was not able to make the trip at lunch time to Zenit St. Petersburg ahead of their Champions League meeting on Tuesday evening (18:00 CET).
“He’ll be out until the end of the year. It’s very bitter for us, especially as our circumstances were anything but ideal before this. We are haunted by injuries,” said a frustrated Bayer 04 manager Roger Schmidt shortly before the four and a half hour flight from Köln to St. Petersburg. Schmidt conducted the final training session in Leverkusen due to the amount of travelling they have to do and also due to the time difference in Russia.
Papadopoulos out until winter break, Bender fit
Sporting Director Rudi Völler regrets that the Greece international is injured, especially after he made a great comeback two weeks ago after a shoulder injury and scored the goal to make it 2-0. “He’s a huge, huge loss. He’s played so well recently.” The new shoulder injury to the man on loan from Schalke has dampened the mood inside the group considerably, especially after Bayer 04 lost 1-0 to Hamburger SV at the weekend and only managed to scrape past Regionalligisten side 1. FC Magdeburg 5-4 on penalties in the DFB cup four days earlier. “It’s a further setback for us,” said Bayer 04 striker Stefan Kießling.
At least Germany international and assistant-captain Lars Bender, who missed out in Hamburg due to bruising to his nose and knee, was given the green light on Monday lunchtime for the game against St. Petersburg.
Völler believes team has what it takes
Meanwhile, Völler wants to see a response, especially after what happened on Saturday: “The Champions League is a completely different competition. And St. Petersburg will look to play football. Hamburg had no intention of doing that.” According to Völler, the team knows what it takes to win in the Champions League. “We have put ourselves in a good position and we want to consolidate that. We can do that in St. Petersburg.”
Bayer 04 want to defend their position as group C leaders in their game on the Neva and possibly build on qualifying for the next stage. Schmidt also knows that Bayer 04 can take a big step towards qualifying for the last 16: “If we come away with something from the game then we’ll take a step closer to qualifying.”
Zenit win dress rehearsal
As well as Papadopoulos, Bayer 04 will also be without the long-term injured Simon Rolfes, Gonzalo Castro and Stefan Reinartz at the Petrowski stadium. It’s expected that Tin Jedvaj will replace “Papa” in holding midfield, but he would normally be the replacement for the suspended Wendell and therefore this role will now be filled by Sebastian Boenisch.
Bayer 04’s opponents, St. Petersburg, celebrated a successful dress rehearsal for Tuesday’s game. Andre Villas-Boas’ side, who will be wanting to replace Bayer 04 as group leaders, beat CSKA Moscow 1-0 and extended their lead at the top of the Russian league to seven points. “It was a great performance,” said Villas-Boas after the game.
