
The team under head coach Gerardo Seoane face a quality side in last season's sixth-placed team in the Eredivisie who have established themselves in the top six of the Dutch league in recent years. German football fans will know about the former Hamburg and Bremen player Eljero Elia. The squad under the 49-year-old head coach René Hake is made up – as is usual in the Netherlands – of several experienced players (Urby Emanuelson, Adam Maher) as well as a lot of youngsters. The Utrecht goalkeeper is Eric Oelschlägel, twice a Super Cup winner with Borussia Dortmund and the only German player in the team.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the capacity at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium is 350 and all the tickets have already been sold. Fans were able to buy tickets for five euros with the proceeds going to the 'Leverkusen hilft' campaign organised by the Leverkusen community foundation, which is supporting victims of the floods financially.
Bayer 04 are broadcasting the second friendly for the Seoane team, with new signing Odilon Kossounou set to make his first appearance, live on the club's YouTube channel. The broadcast begins at 15.50 CEST with Niko Hartmann of Werkself Radio providing the commentary. Former Werkself keeper Ramazan 'Rambo' Özcan will share his assessment of the friendly and also talk about his new role as U19 goalkeeping coach at Bayer 04 at half-time.
HERE is the link to the live stream on YouTube.

Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen has gained a new partner in digital gaming platform Crown Coins, which joins the Bundesliga runners-up's Sponsors Club with immediate effect. The one-and-a-half-year contract runs until 30 June 2027.
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The Werkself host VfB Stuttgart this evening (10 January, 18:30 CET), a side whose recent Bundesliga form has been indifferent but who have regularly produced top performances in the DFB Pokal and UEFA Europa League, and who have a key player back in the squad in striker Ermedin Demirovic. Off the pitch, the BayArena faithful will be able to see the remaining stoppage time live on the video screens. The Matchday News.
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The Werkself face a tough challenge in the first game of 2026 when VfB Stuttgart visit the BayArena on Saturday, 10 January (kick-off: 18:30 CET). Ahead of the top-of-the-table clash, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about his impressions of training this week, anticipation of the start of the new calendar year and the personnel situation.
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