During the summer break, Leon Bailey attended a birthday party for Ussain Bolt in his home country. The star sprinter tested positive for coronavirus shortly after that and the Werkself player then had to spend two weeks in self-isolation as a contact. But Bailey is now finally back on the pitch at the BayArena – and he clearly appears to be happy about that:
The Werkself – logically without Bailey in the squad – started the Bundesliga season with a 0:0 draw at VfL Wolfsburg. While the Wolves had the upper hand in terms of shots on goal (nine) compared with the Black and Reds (seven), the Werkself had more completed passes (82%) and also more possession (59%). However, neither side were able to score on Sunday night – for the first time in the 47th competitive meeting between VfL and Bayer 04.
Due to the first international break of the season, the Bayer 04 Women did not have a game at the weekend. In contrast, there was action at Kurtekotten: The U19s suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat against Borussia Mönchengladbach. The Leverkusen U17s picked up a point away to Fortuna Köln in a 2-2. The other youth results from the weekend are available HERE.
In the morning instead of the evening: Pay-TV channel Sky will now broadcast its football show Sky90 at 11.30 CET in the new Bundesliga season. In addition to the slot, the format will in future also be broadcast on free TV on Sky Sport News. The Werkself could be under discussion next Sunday, 27 September. Head coach Peter Bosz and his players are at home to RB Leipzig at the BayArena the day before at 15.30 CET.
It was the biggest triumph in his career as a professional footballer: In his first season at Bayer 04, Andrzej Buncol celebrated winning the UEFA Cup with the Werkself in 1988. The Pole spent five years at Leverkusen playing in over 120 games. After hanging up his boots in 1997 he went into coaching. Buncol has been youth coach at Bayer 04 for over a decade and the players he helped to develop at Kurtekotten include Kai Havertz. He is 61 today. Bayer 04 wish him a very happy birthday.
It couldn't have been any tighter! Despite winning four of six games in the online preliminary round in Showdown 1 of the VBL Club Championship 2026/27, Leverkusen eSports duo Marc and Sean Landwehr didn't make it through to the offline knockout round. Level on points (12) with seven other teams, Leverkusen were the only team with this points tally not to progress as they had the worst single-game record compared to their rivals.
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Bayer 04 are away to Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb on Matchday 5 of the league phase of the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League. The game kicks off on Thursday 26 November at 18:45 CET at the Maksimir Stadium. All the information on ticket sales.
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It wasn’t just on the pitch that there was cause for celebration around the Werkself’s 2–1 home win against SC Freiburg. Plenty of happy faces could be seen near the dugouts at half-time too. Once again, CEO Fernando Carro, alongside former striker and club ambassador Stefan Kießling, paid tribute to eight supporters’ clubs celebrating up to their 30th anniversary on behalf of Bayer 04.
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A disciplined and impressive team performance secured a 2–1 victory for the Werkself against league leaders SC Freiburg, who had remained unbeaten across all competitions until then; two players once again stood out at the BayArena: Artisic dribbler Ibrahim Maza scored Leverkusen’s first goal himself and set up the second, whilst goal-getter Patrik Schick had set up the equaliser and netted the winner. In doing so, the Czechia international set a remarkable club record. Both head coach Carles Martínez and the media were full of praise afterwards. Maza himself was also delighted with the growing rapport with “super striker” Schick: “The more we play together, the better we understand each other.” The Werkself’s comeback secured their fourth home win in their fourth home game of the season.
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