Bayer Leverkusen – Celje Preview – Can Slovenia’s champions really trouble Leverkusen?
Our Bayer Leverkusen vs Celje betting tips start with a correction. This is not the routine home banker it looks like on paper. Celje are not some domestic makeweight parachuted into the league phase to make up the numbers. They are the reigning Slovenian champions, a side with genuine pedigree at home, and they arrive having pushed Slovan Bratislava all the way to extra time in Champions League qualifying before the Slovaks scraped through on aggregate. That is the form of a team that competes well above its usual level, not one that folds once the away end fills up.
- 16/09/2026
Leverkusen, meanwhile, are still working out who they are under a new manager. Kasper Hjulmand took over after Erik ten Hag was sacked following a winless start last season, and the Dane spent the rest of the campaign steadying the ship, dragging Leverkusen to a respectable recovery in the Bundesliga table without it ever feeling like a finished product. A fresh Europa League league phase is exactly the kind of fixture where old habits and new ideas can collide awkwardly this early in the season.
Bayer Leverkusen – Celje Betting Tips
Two markets make sense once you weigh a Bundesliga side still finding its shape against a Slovenian champion that has already tested Champions League-level opposition this summer.
Betting Tip: Double chance Bayer Leverkusen or draw
Backing Leverkusen outright asks you to pay for certainty that does not exist yet under Hjulmand. The double chance covers the two outcomes that reflect the real gap in quality: a Bundesliga squad carries more depth and more individual talent across the pitch than a PrvaLiga champion, and that edge is usually enough over the course of a match, even on an uneven night. It just does not need the extra risk of a straight home win against a side that has already shown it can hurt sharper opposition than this.
Betting Tip: Both teams to score
Celje found a way through Slovan Bratislava’s defence across two legs and pushed a side now playing in this very competition to extra time before bowing out. A team that can score against that level of opponent, and did so again earlier in the summer against Armenian opposition in a game we previewed here, is not going to travel to Germany and sit in for the whole match. Leverkusen, still bedding in a new defensive structure, are not the safest bet for a clean sheet against a side playing with this much intent going forward. Have a look at the latest betting markets before kickoff, since a few late team news calls could still shift the picture.
A rebuild against a side with nothing to prove
Hjulmand’s Leverkusen enter this looking for a platform, not a coronation. The club, for all its recent continental pedigree, is still bedding in a new manager and facing its first competitive continental test of the season against opposition that has already shown it travels well.
Start with the away leg in Bratislava. Celje went to a side that would go on to reach this very league phase and never let the tie drift away from them, a night we walked through in full in our preview of that first leg. That is not the away form of a team happy to make up the numbers in Europe.
The return in Celje was tighter still. It took extra time for Slovan to finally see the tie out, and our breakdown of the second leg at home covers just how close Celje came to reaching the Champions League proper. Falling short there is precisely why they are in Leverkusen’s group now, not because they were ever out of their depth.
What to expect on matchday
Kickoff is Wednesday 16 September 2026 at 19:00 GMT, the opening round of the new Europa League league phase for both clubs. There is no clear favourite here: this looks about as even as a league-phase opener gets, with Celje’s summer run doing plenty to close whatever gap in quality exists on paper. Expect goals at both ends rather than a backs-to-the-wall shutout, and expect a Slovenian champion determined to make Leverkusen work for anything they take from BayArena.
- 16/09/2026
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