The first match
...took place on matchday six in the 1979/80 season. The two teams shared a 1-1 draw at the Haberland Stadium in front of a crowd of 22,000. Klaus Bruckmann headed in a cross from Dieter Herzog to give Bayer 04 the lead on 72 minutes. FC Köln striker Dieter Müller levelled the scores from a corner with eight minutes to play.
The first win
...was a 2-1 victory for Leverkusen in 1983/84. That was the ninth derby between the two clubs in the Bundesliga. Klaus Allofs put FC Köln 1-0 up after just four minutes before goals from Herbert Waas (34') and Bum-kun Cha (57') turned it round.
The first win in Cologne
...came with a 3-2 win for Bayer 04 on matchday 21 in the 1985/86 campaign. Klaus Allofs netted a brace on six and nine minutes to give Kölna 2-0 lead. Eric Ribbeck's team responded decisively after the break. Thomas Zechel pulled a goal back (51'), Bum-kun Cha levelled (72') and Herbert Waas netted the winner (78').
The most goals in a game
...between the two Rhineland rivals came in a game at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium in May 1985. A spectacular encounter produced an entertaining 4-4 draw. Christian Schreier's opener (22') was cancelled out by Pierre Littbarski (25'), who also made it 2-2 (39') after Dirk Schlegel had restored Leverkusen's lead (36'). Hans-Peter Lehnhoff (44') and Manfred Lefkes (50') scored to put FC 4-2 up before a brace from Herbert Waas (64'/75') put the Werkself level for the last time the game.
The biggest wins
…against FC were a 4-0 win for Bayer 04 in November 1997 with a strike from Erik Meijer (18') followed by an Ulf Kirsten hat-trick (37'/89'/90') plus a 5-1 victory in November 2014. Köln took an early lead with a penalty scored by Matthias Lehmann on four minutes but the Werkself struck back with two goals from Karim Bellarabi (26'/90') and Josip Drmic (79'/88') and one from Hakan Calhanoglu (61').
The longest run
...was achieved by Bayer 04 between 1996/97 (4-0 in Cologne) and 2010/11 (2-0 in Cologne). Leverkusen went 14 consecutive games without defeat against FC Köln with ten wins and four draws.
The most goals
...against FC were scored by prolific goalscorers. Ulf Kirsten (pictured above) heads the list by far with 12 goals against FC. Behind Ulf are Herbert Waas (six) and Arne-Larsen Ökland (four). Amongst the current Bayer 04 first team squad, Stefan Kießling, Lars Bender, Julian Brandt and Karim Bellarabi have all scored twice for the Werkself against FC Köln.
The Bayer 04 Round of 16 tie in the 2026/27 DFB Pokal has been scheduled. The Werkself will host Bundesliga rivals RB Leipzig on Wednesday, 2 December, at 18:00 CET. That was announced by the German Football Association (DFB).
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Video game developer Electronic Arts (EA), in collaboration with the Bundesliga, has announced the six nominees for the Bundesliga Player of the Month award for October 2026 – and Bayer 04’s Ibrahim Maza is among them. Fans of the Black and Reds can vote from now until Sunday 8 November (23:59 CET).
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On Tuesday night, the Leverkusen e-sports team played the first three of their six group stage matches in the second round of the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship. They were unable to secure more than a draw in either of their matches against FC Augsburg and VfB Stuttgart. The match against Bayern Munich ended in defeat.
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Once again, several Werkself players are set to represent their respective national teams during the final international break of the calendar year. Here is an overview of the Leverkusen players called up for international duty and the match dates. This will be updated regularly.
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