News in brief: International call-up for women's quintet

With the boost of two league wins in succession, five Leverkusen Women's players start the second international break of the year. Henrietta Csiszár, Lilla Turanyi and Dora Zeller are the three Bayer 04 Women players in the Hungary squad. Csiszár and Co. will join a short training camp on Sunday, 4 April that ends with a friendly against Bosnia and Herzegovina nine days later.

Winter signing Mina Tanaka travels back home to Japan. Two friendlies are planned in Sendai and Tokyo with the opponents to be confirmed. Lara Marti has also been called up. The 21-year-old it set to play for Switzerland in a 2022 European Championship qualifier against Czechia on 9 and 13 April.

Women: Into the break in fifth place

While the quintet are away on international duty, the remaining players will be working hard for the season run-in in the FLYERALARM Women's Bundesliga. The team under coach Achim Feifel have put themselves in a good position in the leading group.

Thanks to last Fridays 3-2 home win against Eintracht Frankfurt, which attracted over 160,000 spectators to the live broadcast on Eurosport, the Werkself Women now have 29 points from 17 games. That return puts the Black and Reds fifth in the FFBL table, level on points with fourth-placed FFC Turbine Potsdam. The next Bundesliga match for the Feifel team is on Sunday, 18 April (kick-off: 15.00 CEST) away to ninth-placed Werder Bremen.

Hradecky and Paulinho back in the groove

Hannes Wolf and his fellow coaches start of the week under blue skies over Leverkusen with an intensive training session where playing with the ball was centre stage. The 20-year-old Paulinho, who has been sidelined with a torn cruciate for several months, completed all the drills with his teammates.

Lukas Hradecky Also return to full training and again put himself at the mercy of his teammates with training drills that ended with shooting a goal. The Finn has ruled out of action for several weeks due to an Achilles injury. The two-hour training session ended with several Bayer 04 players working on free kicks.

Cem Türkmen celebrated his 19th birthday on the training ground on Monday. The midfielder has progressed through all the youth teams at Bayer 04 and last December he made his senior debut in the Europa League away game in Nice (3-2). Many happy returns, Cem!

#Morethanfootball: Education Action Day

Football is more than just a game. Bayer 04 have recently been highlighting that as part of the #Morethanfootball Action Weeks with over 100 fellow campaigners from all over Europe. The final Monday of March is Education Action Day and is all about education – also at Bayer 04.

The ‘Bayer 04 macht Schule’ education support organisation has for many years offered free workshops for all ages – including last year. Due to the circumstances arising from the coronavirus pandemic, one of the many workshops in the Bayer 04 portfolio has been offered digitally via social media to young Werkself fans.

The subjects: Internet, social media, gaming and cyber-bullying. The five-minute video produced by ‘Bayer 04 macht Schule’ is available on the club's Snapchat channel. HERE is the video.

Goal of the Month by Meijer

A back-heel goal in front of the home end: Exactly 24 years ago, on 29 March 1997, Bayer 04 entertained Schalke 04 at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Ulf Kirsten gave the Werkself the lead just after the hour mark and Eric Meijer made it 2-0 in the closing stages – and what a goal it was. Paulo Sergio broke down the right flank and hit a low cross into the penalty area. The Dutchman was waiting on the six-yard box and he back heeled the ball into the Schalke net. The Meijer masterpiece was voted Goal of the Month in March 1997 on the ARD Sportschau programme. HERE is the video of that Meijer strike.