Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen aim to extend the impressive run of results and keep the spirits high ahead of the start of the Champions League group stages.

Meanwhile, Werder Bremen are still on the lookout for the first win of the league campaign, but they will have to play a perfect game in order to triumph at Bay Arena.

In spite of some unexpected problems, Bayer Leverkusen ended up clinching the final Champions League berth last season, but they, nonetheless, decided to appoint Roger Schmidt as their new boss in the summer.

That proved to be a very good decision as the former Red Bull Salzburg boss is already leaving his mark, with die Werkself enjoying a brilliant start to the new campaign.

While most summer signings have yet to gel, usual suspects Stefan Kiessling and Heung-Min Son seems to have already hit the ground running, together with Hakan Calhanoglu and Karim Bellarabi, who has impressed since returning from loan at Eintracht Frankfurt.

As a result, Bayer eased off to Champions League group stages, recording a 7-2 aggregate win over FC Copenhagen, while hammering Alemannia Waldalgesheim in the DFB Pokal.

And having also defeated Borussia Dortmund and Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga, it is hardly surprising die Werkself have been made 1.33 (1/3) favourites to see off Werder Bremen as well.

Simon Rolfes and Julian Brandt continue to miss out, whilst Lars Bender is unlikely to start as he still lacks match fitness.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Leno – Jedvaj, Toprak, Spahic, Boenisch – Castro, Reinartz – Bellarabi, Calhanoglu, Son – Kiessling.

Werder Bremen finished in Bundesliga top 3 in six of seven seasons between 2003 and 2010, but the club have been on a major downtrend of late.

The Weserstadion outfit ended the previous league campaign in 12th position, and everything suggests they are in for another disappointing campaign.

The club have utterly failed to reinforce the squad over the summer, and with that in mind opening draws against Hertha and Hoffenheim can be considered decent results.

However, Werder are now set to face one of Europe’s in-form teams away from home, and they have little to hope for ahead of the trip to Bay Arena.

Luca Caldirola and Fin Bartels are back in contention, while it remains to be seen whether Ludovic Obraniak will be in the squad after trying to engineer a move away from the club.

The likes of Luca Zander, Theodor Gebre Selassie, Philipp Bargfrede and Julian von Haacke remain long-term casualties.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Wolf – Fritz, Prodl, Lukimya, Garcia – Galvez, Junuzovic – Hajrovic, di Santo, Elia – Petersen.