Since Sunday it has been clear that Charles Aránguiz will not travel to join the Chile squad. The 30-year-old suffered a hairline fracture to his right metatarsal and a thigh injury in the closing stages of the game against Leipzig. As a result he has withdrawn from the international squad due to injury.
Kai Havertz, Jonathan Tah and newcomer Nadiem Amiri are flying the Bayer 04 flag in the Germany squad. The friendly against Argentina, including team-mate Lucas Alario, on 10 October is followed by the third-last Euro 2020 qualifier. The leaders in Group C face Estonia (13 October) who have yet to register a point.
Austria coach Franco Foda has again called up two Werkself players: Julian Baumgartlinger and Aleksandar Dragović are in the Austria squad for the crucial Euro 2020 qualifiers against rivals Israel (10 October) and Slovenia (13 October). With four games to play, Austria are third in Group G (10 points), Israel are in fifth (a) and Slovenia second (11).
Finland, with Lukas Hradecky and returnee Joel Pohjanpalo, also have two important games. As the team lying second in Group J, the Finns (12) meet Bosnia-Herzegovina (12 October) and Armenia (15 October) who are in third and fourth places behind Finland. Two wins against the direct competition would make it virtually impossible for Finland not qualify. After a miserable year, Pohjanpalo could be set to make his first appearance for his national side since the the end of March 2018.
Panagiotis Retsos can also be hopeful of playing for the full international team in the Euro qualifiers: The 21-year-old is first set to help out the Greece U21 team (against the Czech Republic U 21 is on 10 October) and after that, the national coach John van 't Schip has included him in the senior squad for the first time in 18 months for the qualifier against Bosnia-Herzegovina (15 October). In the same group as Finland, Greece (five points) are only in with an outside chance of qualifying for the Euros.
Also on the road with their international teams are Paulinho (Brazil U23), Moussa Diaby (France U21) and Adrian Stanilewicz (Poland U20). In addition, the U19 players Marcel Lotka (Poland U19) and Hans Anapak (Cameroon U23) have also been called up.
In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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