The Factory brace for PSG test as Bade faces hometown club

BAYER Leverkusen, still rebuilding after a turbulent summer, face perhaps the toughest test in club football when they host European champions Paris Saint-Germain today.

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After the most successful period in the German club’s 120-year history ~ which included an unbeaten league and cup double anda run to the Europa League final in 2023/24 - Leverkusen lost coach Xabi Alonso and several first-team regulars in the summer.

Alonso’s successor, Erik ten Hag, was sacked after just two league matches, with Dane Kasper Hjulmand since tasked with bedding in almost an entire starting XI of new arrivals. Among them, France defender Loic Badé has quickly made an impression, already calling the shots in central defence.

Paris-born Badé said The Factory XI needed to be wary of the French giants, describing PSG as “the best team in the world right now.’

Badé, who came through the junior ranks at Paris FC and then Le Havre, overcame an unhappy loan spell at Nottingham Forest before moving to Sevilla, where he won the Uefa Europa League.