The Werkself travelled to the capital on matchday 33 in the knowledge that three points at the Olympic Stadium could have been a big step towards qualifying for the Champions League. "We went to Berlin on the back of a good run and played well in the opening stages of the game," recalled head coach Peter Bosz at the pre-match press conference on Friday. The Werkself did not recover from going 1-0 down to a wonder strike on 22 minutes and the match ended in a 2-0 defeat for the visitors.
Ahead of the first meeting of the season with Hertha Berlin, the numbers are again in favour of the Werkself: The visitors, currently thirteenth in the table, are currently not performing to their own expectations with just one of the last seven Bundesliga matches won. "They are a good opponent. But they're not where everybody expected them to be," Bosz said. "Hertha have a lot of good individual players. But up to now they haven't managed to fulfil expectations as a team."
For the game against the team from the capital, the Dutchman still has to manage without long-term absentees through injury Santiago Arias, Paulinho and Exequiel Palacios as well as the captain Charles Aránguiz (knee). Edmond Tapsoba (positive Covid-19 test) and Sven Bender (ankle) are also sidelined. On the possible return of Lars Bender, who completed the regeneration session with the team on Friday, Bosz said: "We'll have to wait and see how he is."
In view of the winning run and third place in the Bundesliga, which the Werkself could secure with three points against Hertha Berlin, the 56-year-old drew a positive conclusion: "We have changed our style of play slightly and up to now that has worked really well. We want to build on that."

Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 2-1 win against FC Köln on the 18th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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Bayer 04 have secured the services of Serbia U19 international Aleksa Damjanovic for next season. The 17-year-old centre-forward will move from Red Star Belgrade to Leverkusen in the summer on a long-term contract. The 1.98 metre tall striker is regarded as one of the most promising attacking talents in Europe and has recently impressed with strong performances at both first team and youth level. Managing director sport Simon Rolfes and director of football Kim Falkenberg particularly praise his finishing, heading ability and physical presence in the penalty area.
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The Bayer 04 eSports team made a great start to the fifth and final showdown in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26! The Leverkusen players picked up nine points in the first three of six matches in the online preliminary round. Victories against VfL Wolfsburg, Eintracht Braunschweig and SpVgg Greuther Fürth not only put the Black and Reds in a good position to progress to the offline round. Valuable points were also collected for the overall table and direct entry into the final event of the German Club Championship.
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The fifth and final showdown of the VBL Club Championship 2025/26 begins for the #B04eSports team this Thursday, 12 February (live on the VBL Twitch channel from 18:00 CET), with the online preliminary round kicking off against VfL Wolfsburg, Eintracht Braunschweig and SpVgg Greuther Fürth. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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