Bayer Leverkusen vs. Atalanta Predictions: Moussa Diaby takes centre stage in the betting

Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta played out a five-goal thriller last week in Bergamo and we’re expecting more of the same tonight in what promises to be another entertaining encounter. Thrills and spills are on the cards in Germany as the duo lock horns in the last-16 second-leg, with Atalanta holding the narrow advantage following their 3-2 win on home soil. Predicting a winner is proving to be a difficult task, so our focus has very much been on the in-form Moussa Diaby who features in both of our top bets below...

Bayer Leverkusen have slightly gone off the boil of late, having lost three of their last five matches. They did, however, recently hold Bayern Munich to a 1-1 draw and can draw on an impressive Europa League home record of 17 wins from their last 25 matches.

Gerardo Seoane's side, who are currently third in the Bundesliga, head into tonight's match looking to overturn a 3-2 deficit and can be backed at 71/50 to win in 90 minutes, while they are 21/10 to qualify.

Atalanta are the 4/9 favourites to progress through to the next round and are 15/8 to win on the night, whereas a draw can be found at 59/20.

For anyone who read our first-leg preview, you know how highly we rate the excellent Moussa Diaby, who has 8 goals in his last 8 games. The Bayer star, who scored in the 3-2 defeat last week, is in scorching hot form right now and we fancy him to play a big part tonight on home soil.

Diaby has thrived at the BayArena in 2022, scoring 6 times in his last 4 appearances, including a hat-trick in the 5-1 demolition of Augsburg and a brace against Arminia.

Diaby, whose transfer price has reportedly soared to €100m, has 16 goals on the board this season and is our top pick at 12/5 with bet365 to grab another goal tonight.

Sticking with our beloved Diaby, Betfair are offering a boosted price of 5/2 - from 15/8 - for Diaby, plus the Atalanta duo of Luis Muriel and Ruslan Malinovskyi, to each have 1 or more shots on target (SOT) in the second-leg.

We’ve already discussed Diaby’s form in the paragraph above: with 16 shots, 9 SOT, and 4 goals, he’s a player who has thrived in this season’s Europa League.

Luis Muriel was the difference in the first-leg, scoring a brace in the 3-2 win. In two Europa League appearances this season he has fired in 9 shots, 5 of which have been on target, including the aforementioned 2 goals last week.

In three showings in the competition, Ruslan Malinovskyi has 3 goals to his name from 12 shots, 6 of which have been on target.

All three players are in cracking form and given that another open and attack-minded clash is on the cards, we’re tipping each player to repeat the feat of the first-leg and all have a SOT in the reverse fixture.