Roger Schmidt: 'We are still confident'

Bayer Leverkusen head coach Roger Schmidt has claimed that he is still confident of reaching the Champions League group stage after the 1-0 loss to Lazio.

Keita Balde Diao scored the only goal in the first leg of the qualifying tie at the Stadio Olimpico to hand the advantage to Lazio, who have not made it to the group stage of the competition for eight years.

However, Schmidt is confident that his side are strong enough to overturn the deficit at the BayArena next week.

"It was an intense match. We had several opportunities to score, but we weren't able to do so. However, Lazio did – they have a strong team. Now we have the return match where we will try to overturn this result," the Leverkusen boss told reporters.

"Ahead of the home tie, we will work on our counter-attacking and on our defensive game – we will do our best. We have worked well in recent weeks and we are pretty confident."

Leverkusen have reached the last 16 of the competition in the last two seasons.