Overview
Nottingham Forest played 7 friendly matches in the pre-season period. They won 3 of the first 4 matches, but entered this confrontation after a streak of 3 consecutive defeats.
Forest lost 1-4 to Sporting Lisbon in early August. After that, they successively suffered 0-1 defeats against Udinese and Barcelona in 2 matches that only took place in 45 minutes.
Oliver Glasner's team still has 2 friendly matches against Leverkusen and Brest before starting the 2026-2027 Premier League campaign with a confrontation with Leeds.
Forest has just signed 2 contracts in the summer of 2026, including Xaver Schlager and Gustavo Sa, but is expected to continue to strengthen the force before the transfer window closes.
On the other side, Leverkusen had an impressive start in the process of preparing for the new season. They won 5 consecutive victories against Baumberg, Offenbach, Genk, RW Essen and Sevilla.
The Bundesliga team will have 2 more friendly matches with Premier League representatives, Forest and Newcastle United, before entering the 2026-2027 season with a match against Wehen in the German National Cup.
Leverkusen has recruited 6 new players this summer, of which Afonso Moreira from Lyon is the highest-paid contract. In the opposite direction, 10 first-team players have left, including Piero Hincapie, Kerim Alajbegovic and Alejandro Grimaldo.
Personnel situation
Oliver Glasner is likely to use this match to test the squad towards the Premier League opening match.
Chris Wood can play highest in the attack, while Dan Ndoye and Gustavo Sa take charge of the two wings. Morgan Gibbs-White is expected to play in the number 10 position.
On the Leverkusen side, the German team will be without the services of a number of players due to injury, including Kennet Eichhorn, Eliesse Ben Seghir, Nathan Tella and Montrell Culbreath.
Jarell Quansah may return to the squad after participating in the 2026 World Cup with the England national team.
Expected lineup:
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo, N. Williams, Sangare, McAtee, Ndoye, Gibbs-White, Sa, Wood.
Bayer Leverkusen: Flekken, Arthur, Bade, Tapsoba, Gutierrez, Andrich, Palacios, A. Garcia, Tillman, Moreira, Kofane.
The match between Nottingham Forest and Bayer Leverkusen takes place at 1:45 a.m. on August 13 (Vietnam time).
