The last meeting of the two teams is well remembered by everybody at Bayer 04. In the qualifying rounds for the Champions League in August 2015, the Werkself won 3-0 at the BayArena with goals from Hakan Calhanoglu, Admir Mehmedi and Karim Bellarabi. A 1-0 defeat in the second leg saw Bayer 04 progress to the group stage. An eminently important victory against a strong opponent who finished last season in third place in the Serie A just one point behind rivals AS Roma and ahead of clubs like Fiorentina, Napoli plus Inter and AC Milan – the best league finish since the second title win in the club's history in 2000.
At the turn-of-the-century, Lazio were a top European team with stars like Alessandro Nesta, Pavel Nedved and Juan Sebastián Verón under Sven-Göran Eriksson who went on to be the England manager. In 1999 they were the last team to win the European Cup Winners Cup. In the championship winning season came the first two matches between the 'Biancoceleste' and Bayer 04. The two clubs met in the group stage of the Champions League with the ties producing two 1-1 draws – the only two points dropped in the group stage by Lazio who went through to the quarter-finals.
Lazio in the Europa League
The team from the Italian capital are on the European stage again this season. Last season's fifth-place finish under coach Simone Inzaghi, younger brother of the Italian legend striker Filippo Inzaghi, are in the Europa League in 2017/18. Stars of the team include the sought after striker Keita Baldé, defender Stefan de Vrij and the two Brazilian midfielders Felipe Anderson and Lucas Leiva. The latter joined the club last week after ten years at Liverpool.
Fans of the Bundesliga will also be familiar with Ciro Immobile. The central striker, who played for Borussia Dortmund in 2014/2015, joined Lazio last summer to take over the arduous mantle from Miroslav Klose, who scored 63 goals for the Roman side between 2011 and 2016. Before the record goalscorer for Germany, who became a crowd favourite in the Eternal City, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Karl-Heinz Riedle and Thomas Doll all wore the shirt with the Lazio eagle on the chest.
Season launch with match against Celta Vigo
The Werkself head home directly after the final whistle in Grödig. The next and last friendly in the pre-season is against Spanish top-flight side Celta Vigo at the season launch at the BayArena on 5 August.
The Werkself kicked off the final international break of the current season on Monday morning with the first of three open training sessions this week. While eleven Bayer 04 players will be away on international duty in the coming days, the other players will be working together in Leverkusen. The next challenge in the Bundesliga awaits on Saturday, 4 April (kick-off: 15:30 CEST) with the home game against VfL Wolfsburg.
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Due to maintenance work, the online shop and other digital services from Bayer 04 Leverkusen will be temporarily restricted or unavailable from Monday, 23 March (18:00 CET) to Thursday, 26 March. Bayer 04 will provide immediate updates via the club's official channels if the work is completed earlier than planned. The overview.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 1-0 win against FC Carl Zeiss Jena on the 21th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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Thanks to a masterstroke from Katharina Piljic, the Werkself secured their eleventh win of the season in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga. On Sunday evening, coach Roberto Pätzold's team beat FC Carl Zeiss Jena 1-0. Midfielder Piljic scored the winning goal with a volley into the corner from the edge of the box (19’) in front of 633 spectators at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium - and ensured that Leverkusen moved up to fifth place in the table for at least one night with 34 points.
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Bayer 04 will have to make do without forward Martin Terrier in the next few weeks. The Frenchman sustained a muscle injury in his right hamstring in Saturday's 3-3 draw at Heidenheim in the Bundesliga.
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