Bayer 04 will be based in Austria from 14 to 22 July – in cooperation with the tourism partner SalzburgerLand, the Werkself will again stay at the Hotel Tauern Spa in Kaprun and complete their training sessions at the Alois Latini Stadium, home to FC Zell am See.
Lukas Hradecky, Patrik Schick & Co. will play Panathinaikos on Sunday 17 July (kick-off: 17.00 CEST) at the pitch in close proximity to the lake Zeller See. The club from the Greek capital have won the league title 20 times and last season the team under coach Ivan Jovanovic lifted the national cup and finished the season top of the Super League. This will not be the first meeting for Bayer 04 with the top Greek club. Panathinaikos and the Werkself faced each other in the Round of 16 in the European Cup Winners Cup in the 1993/94 season. Bayer 04 progressed to the next round with a 4-1 win after losing 2-1 in the first leg.
The Werkself have also played competitive matches against Udinese, the second opponents at the training camp – and that was four times within just 15 months in the UEFA Cup: Bayer 04 progressed through the first round against Italian club in 1998/1999 (1-1, 1-0) with Udinese coming out on top in the third round in the following season (1-0, 1-2). The team including former Bundesliga player Tolgay Arslan (including Hamburg SV) finished twelfth in Italy's top flight last season. The friendly will be played on Thursday 21 June (kick-off: 17.00 CEST), also at the Alois Latini Stadium.
The first match in the preseason ahead of the 2022/23 campaign will be five days before heading off to Austria. Bayer 04 will play third division MSV Duisburg in Velbert on Saturday 9 July. The kick-off will be at 15.30 CEST and information on ticket sales for the match at the IMS Arena HERE.
All Werkself friendlies will be broadcast live on the Bayer 04 YouTube channel.
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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A bitter end to the fifth showdown of the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship as the #B04eSports team failed to take any points in the three remaining matches of the preliminary online round of the fifth and final showdown, missing out on the offline round. They can no longer take points in the overall table. Bayer 04 slipped out on the top eight, so direct participation in the final event for the German Club Championship is no longer possible, with Bayer 04 having to contest the play-offs.
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