Bayer Leverkusen can challenge best - Roger Schmidt

The Bundesliga outfit secured a 3-0 win at home to Lazio on Wednesday to complete a 3-1 aggregate victory and advance from the play-off.

Goals from Hakan Calhanoglu, Admir Mehmedi and Karim Bellarabi saw Leverkusen to their win against the undermanned visitors.

Schmidt was full of praise for his team and believes they are capable of seriously challenging most teams in the group stage.

"We are delighted to have made the group stage. This means a lot to the whole team and I think everybody could see how focused we were," he said.

"We played very well and we always believed in our style. From my point of view we deserved this win, there is no doubt about it.

"We were dominant throughout and kept everything under control.

"We play with a high intensity at home and can create a lot of problems for any team in Europe. We are used to this intensity, our opponent often aren't."

Leverkusen are in pot two for the Champions League draw, which will be held in Monaco on Thursday.