The Eagle Owls secured a comfortable 3-0 win against rivals Liechtenstein in front of 10,000 fans in Helsinki and are guaranteed second place in Group J behind Italy with a game to play. With the injured Werkself striker Joel Pohjanpalo looking on, Lukas Hradecky kept a clean sheet and ended up celebrating wearing an eagle owl mask. The Finland goals were scored by Jasse Tuominen (21’) and Teemu Pukki (64’, 75’).
Lucas Alario also had reason to celebrate with Argentina. In the clash with Brazil, a friendly played in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, the Gauchos won 1-0. The winner was scored by Lionel Messi on 14 minutes and Alario came off the bench with two minutes of normal time to play
Moussa Diaby, playing for the France U21s, celebrated a fortunate 3-2 win against Georgia to clock up a third win in the third Euro qualifier (Group B). The winner was scored in added time from the penalty spot by Odsonne Edouard. Georgia levelled through goals from Giorgi Kokhreidze (58’) and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (60’) after France had gone 2-0 up with a brace from Jeff Reine-Adelaide (15’, 54’). Diaby started on the right wing and played until being substituted on 83 minutes.
It was not a very happy night for Panagiotis Retsos. He led out the Greece U21s as captain in a Euro qualifier against Scotland in Edinburgh but ended up being sent off on 63 minutes after being shown a second yellow card. In spite of being a man down, his team-mates went on to win the game thanks to a penalty in added time scored by Dimitris Nikoalou. That leaves Greece top of the table in Group D. Paulinho (Brazil U23s) and Adrian Stanilewicz (Poland U20s) were in action on Thursday. Paulinho and the Brazil Olympic team beat USA 1-0 in a friendly played in the Spanish city of Las Palmas, Stanilewicz celebrated a runaway 5-1 victory over Switzerland with the Poland U 20 side in the Elite League. The young Werkself pro watched from the bench.
Germany, with Jonathan Tah and Nadiem Amiri in the squad, play Belarus in a Euro 2020 qualifier tonight (kick- off: 20.45 CET). At the same time, Austria play North Macedonia with Julian Baumgartlinger as captain and Aleksandar Dragovic also set to play.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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