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#INSERT type:image caption:Miroslav Klose is anticipating a touch challenge to progress in the Champions League. END# There can be no excuses for Lazio in their Champions League playoff against Bayer Leverkusen, veteran attacker Miroslav Klose has said. Klose said he expected "two very intense games" against the Bundesliga side, with the first leg taking place in Italy on Tuesday. Lazio, who have yet to start their domestic season, last week suffered a 2-0 defeat to Juventus in the Italian Super Cup. "We need to be ready," Klose told German football magazine kicker. "I hope that we will promptly find our rhythm and play with the same efficiency as we did for major parts of the last season." The 37-year-old is entering the final year of his current contract and is widely expected to retire from football in 2016. He told kicker he wanted to focus on this season, and the Champions League challenge, before considering his future. And he said he believed Leverkusen and Lazio would prove evenly matched opponents, explaining: "That's why it will be incredibly important to make fewer mistakes than them. "I have seen Leverkusen a bunch of times, and they impressed me. We want to decide the match in Rome with the support of our fans. I expect two very intense games." Leverkusen have participated in the Champions League playoffs four times, and have always progressed to the group stages, but their Germany international Christoph Kramer told kicker: "It feels like a round-of-16 tie. "We will give it our all to get a good result in Rome. We know what awaits us." Leverkusen attacker Son Heung-Min, 23, told the magazine he and his teammates needed to be wary of Klose, explaining: "He still scores loads of goals, and became top scorer at the World Cup. You can learn a lot from such a player, bascially because he obviously did everything right."
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