
"We really got stuck in," said Sven Bender. "But that's what we need now. We don't have much time before the start of the second half of the season."
In the absence of Peter Bosz, who was away from Leverkusen due to a private matter, assistant coach Hendrie Krüzen led the training session. And the long-standing colleague of Peter Bosz pulled out all the stops. In the practice matches on small pitches, he again and again fired up the pros, let the players not taking part do circuits and carried on playing even in the event of small knocks.
However, one player took a hit before the end of the session. Paulinho was left lying on the ground after a challenge. The Brazilian suffered a wound to his mouth and was sent to the dressing room as a precautionary measure. According to the medical section, it is probable that the 18-year-old will be back on the pitch with his team-mates in the next session on Thursday.
The underdogs came out on top in the mini-tournament. The Green team had to thank keeper Lukas Hradecky above all for their triumph and he insisted on a group photo with the winners after the final whistle. The Finland shot-stopper shared the limelight with Lucas Alario, Sam Schreck, Tin Jedvaj, Adrian Stanilewicz, Mitchell Weiser, Dominik Kohr, Herdi Bukusu and Leon Bailey.
There is no squad training on Wednesday; the sessions on Thursday and Friday will not be open to the public.

This fan meeting got off to a rather unexpected start. On Sunday afternoon, the Bayer 04 managing directors had just welcomed the fans present at the team hotel for the traditional get-together at the training camp when Fernando Carro’s phone rang. The CEO, glancing towards managing director sport Simon Rolfes with a smile, said: “We’ll just have to answer that quickly.” When asked by the fans what the call was actually about, the pair left it open with a wink. Instead, Carro and Rolfes then spent over an hour happily answering the fans’ many other questions.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have agreed Kerim Alajbegovic’s transfer to Italian record champions Juventus. The club brought the 18-year-old attacking player back to Leverkusen this summer via a buy-back option, following a season at Red Bull Salzburg. Until his move to Austria, the Bosnia international had been playing for Bayer 04’s Under-19s.
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A warm welcome to the Weimarer Land, Bayer 04! The Werkself moved into their accommodation for this year’s training camp on Saturday evening. In Blankenhain, Thuringia, head coach Carles Martínez’s team have a programme of gruelling training sessions – several of which will be open to fans – and team-building activities lined up for the next six days. We’ll be following the Werkself up close and providing you with exclusive insights, quotes, photos and videos from the training camp.
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With 22 days to go until the start of the Bundesliga campaign, the Bayer 04 Women’s team have gained a fresh boost of confidence. In a friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk on Saturday afternoon, coach Roberto Pätzold’s team secured a 1–0 win. Lobke Loonen (20’) scored the winner for the Black and Reds at the Kurtekotten training centre.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of the 3-0 victory in the friendly match against Rot-Weiss Essen...
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