The Werkself LIVE matchday magazine for the game against the team next to bottom in the Bundesliga will be available at the stadium – it is also online now. This season’s new Bayer 04 programme is full of stats and facts on the match between the Werkself and the team under head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo. On the reverse side there is a poster of Timothy Fosu-Mensah. HERE is the e-paper.
The German Football Association (DFB) have appointed Dr Felix Brych as the match referee. The 46-year-old match official from Munich has previously been in charge of 39 games involving the Werkself, 38 in the Bundesliga and one in the DFB Cup – with 22 wins, five draws and twelve defeats for the Black and Reds. Dr Brych has shown 57 yellow and three red cards in those games. His assistants are Marcel Unger and Thomas Gorniak, Günter Perl is the VAR referee. Have a good game.
Based on the current coronavirus protection order of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, 10,000 spectators are permitted to attend the match at the BayArena but there is no standing section. Spectators must wear a medical grade face mask, including at their own seat, for the duration of their visit. The 2G plus rule also applies.
The Werkself have only lost one of the last 19 Bundesliga fixtures against today's visitors from Baden-Württemberg (14 wins, four draws): a 1-0 home defeat in April 2018. That was also the only clean sheet for Stuttgart in the last 24 league matches against the Black and Reds. Also worth mentioning: Bayer 04 have beaten VfB 38 times in the Bundesliga – more than any other team. Another plus: The Werkself have only scored more goals in matches against Borussia Mönchengladbach (152) than against the team with the hooped shirt (142).
On today's matchday, Bayer 04 congratulate three former Werkself players on their birthdays – including the player with the most appearances: Rüdiger Vollborn celebrates his 59th birthday. He joined Bayer 04 from his home town of Berlin in 1981 and went on to make 401 league appearances in goal for the Black and Reds – no other player has surpassed that number of games to date. Vollborn is also the only player to win the UEFA Cup (in 1988) and the DFB Cup (in 1993) with the Werkself. After hanging up his boots, he went on to be the goalkeeping coach and now for many years he has worked as the fan liaison officer and club archivist at Bayer 04. For the past year, Vollborn has brought the history of the Werkself closer to the fans with his regular contribution of ‘Rudi recounts…’. Many happy returns, Rudi!
The other two birthday boys played for Werkself youth teams: Kolja Pusch (2005 to 2013), now 29 years old, plus the recently 30-year-old Tobias Haitz (2007 to 2013). While Pusch is now playing for MSV Duisburg in the third division, Haitz ended his playing career in the summer of 2018. Many happy returns to both of you.
Die zwei weiteren Geburtstagskinder liefen derweil in ihrer Jugend für den Werksklub auf: Kolja Pusch (2005 bis 2013), nun 29 Jahre alt, sowie der neuerdings 30-jährige Tobias Haitz (2007 bis 2013). Während Pusch mittlerweile für den Drittligisten MSV Duisburg am Ball ist, hat Haitz seine Laufbahn im Sommer 2018 beendet. Herzlichen Glückwunsch auch an euch beide!
In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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