You are right and of course is going to be a serious challenge for them because they may possibly go back to the days they were having difficulties performing well because of there inconsistency, however I really enjoyed there performance this season because there performance was actually what made Bundesliga very interesting because nobody expected the performance from them this season.
Of course, Xabi and the Leverkusen management really understand what will happen this season, it may be different from last season where their path was really smooth and very good at breaking their unbeaten record in the Bundesliga and almost unbeatable in the UAE Europa League too ( because they only lost in the final against Atalanta).
However, for this season, they are also aware that several of their strong opposing teams, especially Bayern Munich, and several other top teams such as Dortmund, Stuttgart, Leipzig, and others are also increasingly improving their clubs and strengthening their clubs by purchasing various top players for the clubs. So it will be much more
competitive again and it certainly won't be as easy as last season.
Anyway, for the UCL, of course, Leverkusen was there in that match, but they didn't seem to be taken into account at that time. However, for now it is definitely different, because of course the opponents will also see how each club performed last season and Leverkusen is one of the rising clubs which really surprised many parties.