After two defeats in succession, Chile got back on track in the race to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with Bayer 04 midfielder Charles Aránguiz in the side. La Roja beat closest rivals Bolivia 3-2. The matchwinner was Inter Milan's Alexis Sánchez with a brace. Aránguiz was substituted on 67 minutes.
Chile are now sixth in the South American qualifying group with a two-point gap to the play-off place of fifth and three to fourth spot, which would qualify them directly for the World Cup. The last two crucial matches will be played at the end of March. Aránguiz and Co. will face the already qualified Brazil, currently top of the group, as well as fourth-placed Uruguay.
The situation for Ecuador is much more relaxed: The team including Werkself player Piero Hincapie secured a 1-1 draw in Peru overnight and the Leverkusen defender again went the full distance. The result means they are still in third place and, with two games to go, they are four points above the play-off spot of fifth.
At the end of March, Hincapie and Co. play Paraguay, who have no chance of qualifying for the World Cup, as well as already qualified Argentina.
Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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Two Saturdays, one Friday and one Sunday: The dates for the Bayer 04 Women's team games on matchdays 16 to 19 have been finalised. Three of the four matches scheduled by the German Football Association (DFB) on Tuesday will be played at home at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
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Bayer 04 currently have a number of promising young talents on loan to various clubs in Europe with the aim of gaining match practice and furthering their individual development. Francis Onyeka and Farid Alfa-Ruprecht, for example, play for VfL Bochum 1848, while Artem Stepanov is a striker with 1. FC Nürnberg, coached by World Cup winner Miroslav Klose. Tim Oermann is a defender in the Austrian Bundesliga at top club SK Sturm Graz and Abdoulaye Faye is playing in France for FC Lorient, promoted to Ligue 1 this season. Bayer04.de reviews the first six months for the Leverkusen players out on loan.
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Despite a courageous display, the Bayer 04 Women missed out on a surprise at the start of the second half of the Bundesliga season. Coach Roberto Pätzold's team lost 3-0 to league leaders Bayern Munich on Monday night. An early goal from the clinical visitors, a disputed penalty and another spot-kick prevented Leverkusen, who are seventh in the table on 22 points from 14 games, from picking up a point in front of 3,011 spectators at the sold-out Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
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