Our head coach has now been in post for a year. The Dutchman took over the coaching hot seat from Heiko Herrlich for the second half of the 2018/19 season. The first game in charge of Bayer 04 for the 56-year-old was a home game against Borussia Mönchengladbach on 19 January 2019 (0-1). Since then there have been 44 other fixtures in the Bundesliga, the Europa and Champions Leagues plus the DFB Cup.
In the second half of last season, the Werkself produced an outstanding comeback to achieve the season's target in the chase for points. For the first time in the season, on the last matchday in the Bundesliga, the Black and Reds jumped up to fourth place in the table away to Hertha Berlin to secure a place in the UEFA Champions League.
The record (with the first match of the second half of the season being played in December 2018): Twelve wins, one draw, five defeats.
For the last home game of the 2018/19 season against Schalke 04, Bayer 04 celebrated the '40 years in the Bundesliga under the Bayer Cross' anniversary for three days. The back story: Bayer 04 finally reached their target on 13 May 1979: A 3-3 draw against Bayer 05 Uerdingen at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium saw the team coached by Willibert Kremer secure promotion to Germany's top flight. The Bundesliga adventure started on 11 August 1979 with an away game at Bayern Munich. Bayer 04 have remained in the top division since that day.
Bum-kun Cha, Christoph Daum, Erik Meijer, Jens Nowotny, Bernd Schneider, Zé Roberto and Paulo Sergio joined the promotion heroes from 1979 and many other Bayer 04 All Stars at the event. It was a great party!
The summer of 2019 brought 04 new faces and squad numbers: Kerem Demirbay, Moussa Diaby, Daley Sinkgraven and Nadiem Amiri joined Bayer 04. Their first competitive appearances in black and red:
Back to Salzburger Land: Once again, the Werkself held their summer training camp in Zell am See-Kaprun. Strenuous training sessions and two friendlies against Watford and SD Eibar were on the agenda for the Werkself for a week in July:
The first half of the campaign in this season has been rather up and down for the Werkself. On the one hand, we are happy to remember the outstanding away win at FC Bayern or the three points at home to Schalke, away to Wolfsburg and Düsseldorf. On the other hand, the derby defeat in Cologne still hurts as do the dropped points against Hoffenheim, Werder Bremen and Hertha Berlin… The first half of the season in pictures:
The Werkself had three ties in the DFB Cup in 2019. Memories of the first in February last season are less good – the Werkself were knocked out in the Round of 16 away to FC Heidenheim after a 1-1 draw. The Werkself are looking to do better this season – and are again in the last 16. The route there was via a 4-1 away win in the first round at Alemannia Aachen followed by a 1-0 home win against SC Paderborn in the second round.
The Werkself have certainly travelled a lot this year. The second half of last season saw Peter Bosz and his players travel to Russia to play FK Krasnodar but the last 32 of the Europa League but Bayer 04 were knocked out at that stage. A new season, another competition: The Werkself were back in the Champions League in the summer after two and a half years. The draw put Bayer 04 in Group D with some impressive opponents: Lokomotiv Moscow, Juventus and Atletico Madrid. Impressions:
Bayer 04 supporters again produced some great fan choreography in 2019. The pictures speak for themselves…
In their third friendly of this pre-season, Bayer 04 played on home soil for the first time – and won there too! The Werkself claimed a comfortable 4-0 victory against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion. Jeanuel Belocian (9’) and Nathan Tella (42’) gave a dominant Leverkusen a 2-0 lead at the break, which Afonso Moreira (51’) and Christian Kofane (53’) doubled after the break. Among the many second-half substitutions was Patrik Schick, who made his first friendly appearance of the summer.
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The Werkself are finally back. On Saturday 8 August, Bayer 04 kick off the 2026/27 campaign with their opening match. But there’s far more than just a double-header in store for Werkself supporters. True to the motto ‘One day. Two teams. One club’, the BayArena and the Ulrich Haberland Stadium will be transformed into a world of excitement.
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The Werkself continue their 2026/27 pre-season preparations with their third friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion on Wednesday 29 July (kick-off 15:00 CEST). Werkself-TV is broadcasting the match live and in full in a stream from 14:50 CEST...
After the children from the Bayer 04 Football Academy grilled Janis Blaswich and Simeon Rapsch last week, another group of 20 young Werkself fans gathered at the BayArena press conference room on Tuesday afternoon, 28 July . This time, the kids directed their questions at Tim Oermann and Jonah Berghoff. Defender Oermann raved about his school days, whilst talented midfielder Berghoff revealed to the young footballers, amongst other things, who his favourite player is – and he is also at Bayer 04. To round things off, the pair naturally obliged with all requests for autographs and selfies.
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Bayer 04 are back on the pitch. Following the first training sessions, the Werkself play the first pre-season friendly on Saturday, July 18. The match against Oberliga club Sportfreunde Baumberg kicks off at 15:30 CEST in Monheim am Rhein. Fans unable to attend the match can watch head coach Carles Martínez’s first game in charge for free via a livestream at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app, as well as on Werkself.tv (exclusively for members). Just log on and watch the games live. All the other Werkself preseason friendlies leading up to the 2026/27 season will also be streamed live for free.
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