As with Bochum, Fortuna Köln are familiar opponents for Bayer 04 in friendly matches. The last time the two teams met was in November last year with Leverkusen winning 1-0 at the Haberland Stadium. The goalscorer was Kai Havertz who, five days earlier, had become the youngest ever player to make his debut for the Werkself in the Bundesliga match against Darmstadt 98. Back then, Bayer 04 played Fortuna without 15 internationals and this time it will be nine – plus the two U19 players Sam Schreck and Atakan Akkaynak. The injured Charles Aránguiz (Chile) and Tin Jedvaj (Croatia) are unable to play for their countries this time round.
Head coach Heiko Herrlich will again use the opportunity against Köln to give time on the pitch to players in his squad who have not appeared much recently – such as goalkeeper Rambo Özcan, Stefan Kießling, André Ramalho, Vladlen Yurchenko and Marlon Frey. Fortuna Köln have had an excellent start to their third division campaign and are currently third in the table behind Paderborn and Magdeburg after eleven games. The team coached by Uwe Koschinat have only lost one game and they secured a 3-1 victory in their last match at Großaspach.
Bayer 04 have arranged another friendly for the third international window of the season against MSV Duisburg on 9 November.
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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Bayer 04 face Hamburger SV for the first time in almost eight years. Although the Hanseatic city team are often below par on the road, they are regularly in top form in front of their own fans. In particular, 18-year-old shooting star Luka Vuskovic is proving to be a real bonus for Merlin Polzin's team, both in attack and defence. However, that should not scare the Werkself: Not only was the last defeat against the newly promoted team 17 games ago, but Kasper Hjulmand's players are in with a chance of securing their fifth win in six games against HSV. Today’s matchday news.
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Hamburger SV and Bayer 04 meet again in the Bundesliga for the first time in almost eight years. This Tuesday evening, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET), the promoted team with impressive home form welcome the Werkself to the Volksparkstadion to round off the Hinrunde. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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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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