Leverkusen, BVB in Champions League action

Bundesliga team Bayer Leverkusen has a great chance to push their claim for a berth in the Round of 16 stage of the Champions League, when they take on Zenit St. Petersburg in Russia on Tuesday. But, despite a healthy placing in the Bundesliga at the moment, things aren't looking too good ahead of the game (kick off at 17:00 UTC).

"The situation is not really ideal," said coach Roger Schmidt before departing on Monday. "We've only had a short break, we'll have to deal with a big temperature change, there's travel time, and we are missing players. This isn't going to be a walk in the park."

The team's German Cup win last week against Magdeburg - which was finally decided via penalties - took a lot out of the team. Then, there was the 1-0 loss to Hamburg.

"We didn't play football as we should have, we didn't work as a team and we lost our discipline," says Schmidt. "We need to go to our limits, if we want to achieve something."

Half the job done

In their first Champions League encounter with Zenit St. Petersburg two weeks ago, Bayer Leverkusen won comfortably 2-0. "Zenit wasn't that dangerous, because we defended beautifully and we were well organized," said Leverkusen General Manager Michael Schade. "We will have to put in a top performance like that again."

With a win or draw in St. Petersburg, Leverkusen, who are currently leading Champions League Group C on six points, ahead of Monaco (five points), Zenit (four) and Benfica (one), could get themselves very close to getting into the next round.

Brazilian player Wendell won't be journeying to St. Petersburg after being sent off last time out. Tin Jedvaj or Sebastian Boenisch are likely to replace him at left back. In addition, Greek center half Kyriakos Papadopoulos will also be missing, after badly injuring his shoulder. His return to the team is now expected in 2015.

BVB vs. Galatasaray

In normal circumstances, Borussia Dortmund would go into their match against Galatasaray on Tuesday night (kick off at 19:45 UTC) all smiles. The men in yellow and black have won all their Champions League games so far and they put in a competent showing on the weekend in their narrow loss to Bayern Munich. Instead, the club is unsettled as they come to terms with being second-last in the league, having lost five in a row in the Bundesliga. The players are frustrated and now defensive boss Mats Hummels is also out injured.

"Without Mats, we are missing an important player in our on-field structure," said Sporting Director Michael Zorc. Against Bayern, Neven Subotic replaced Hummels but didn't seem up to the task. He couldn't help the team going forward and he also made two major errors, which led to the Bayern goals.

With a win against their Turkish opponents on Tuesday, BVB could already qualify for the next round. Despite the poor showings in the Bundesliga so far, they still go into the match as slight favorites. The main reason: Galatasaray's season so far has also not been going well. Despite a 2-1 win against Kasimpasaspor in the Süper Lig on the weekend, the team looked out of sorts. Dortmund steamrolled them 4-0 when they met in Istanbul.

"At the moment we are lacking self confidence," Hamit Altintop said, in an interview with the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet. "We are not in a position to really perform at our best at the moment."

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Real Madrid will host English Premier League side Liverpool, in what could prove the highlight of the round. Real Madrid are so far undefeated in the competition and have only conceded two goals; they made short work of The Reds at Anfield last month, winning 3-0. On Wednesday, Bundesliga teams Bayern Munich and Schalke will also be in action, taking on Roma and Lisbon's Sporting Clube de Portugal respectively.

DW will cover the two Tuesday Champions League games with German involvement live at www.dw.de/sports. Coverage will begin at 16:30 UTC.