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."
Video game producer Electronic Arts (EA) has announced the nominees for the Men's and Women's Team of the Year (TOTY) for EA Sports FC 26. With Patrik Schick and Alejandro Grimaldo for the men and Vanessa Fudalla for the women, there are three Bayer 04 players included. Fans of the Black-and-Reds can vote for each top XI of 2025 from now until 18:59 CET on Monday 12 January.
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The Werkself host Mainz at the BayArena on matchday 24 in the 2025/26 Bundesliga season. The match is on Saturday, 28 February, at 15:30 CET. Information on ticket sales.
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The long-standing successful collaboration between Bayer 04 and the transport service provider wupsi GmbH has been expanded: From January 2026, 100 wupsi bikes with Bayer 04 branding will be available for hire throughout the city of Leverkusen. They will complement the many existing offers and services that provide key support, especially for fans travelling to and from home matches at the BayArena.
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The Werkself are back! Following the two-week winter break, head coach Kasper Hjulmand's team began the new year with an open session on Sunday. After Robert Andrich and his teammates arrived in Leverkusen yesterday for the official check-in, they got back down to business a day later in front of around 1,200 fans at the Ulrich Haberland Stadion. The report from the Werkself's first session of 2026.
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