Buoyed by the success of reaching the last sixteen of the Champions League in Moscow on Tuesday night with a game to play, the Werkself will be up for the challenge in Munich as Roger Schmidt declared.
"Promise to Karim "
The head coach revealed a very special motivation for his young team to the members of the media on Friday afternoon: “We have a very good reason to be in the Champions League at the start of 2017. The reason is Karim Bellarabi. Last season, he played a big part in us qualifying for the Champions League so we were determined to see Karim play in the competition. He’s well on the road to recovery but he won’t play again this year. So we’re really happy we could keep that promise.”
The personnel position at the Werkself has hardly changed since the CSKA Moscow game. “It will probably be the same squad as on Tuesday,” said Schmidt. That means the game has come too early for Vladlen Yurchenko, Joel Pohjanpalo is unavailable and Lars Bender will also join Karim Bellarabi on the sidelines. “Lars still has a problem with his heel. It hasn’t improved much and he’ll need time, probably two or three weeks. We hope he’ll be back as soon as possible.” According to Schmidt, Stefan Kießling has not “trained for ten days and I need to speak to him.”
"FC Bayern are in good shape"
The fact the opponents in the top match have lost their last two games will not lead Roger Schmidt “to take anything for granted. Bayern were the better team against Dortmund for much of the match. The team have had a couple of results that are below par. Despite that, they will be in good shape and probably be able to field their best side against us. They have much more experience than other team in the league or in Europe and are capable of producing a top performance whenever the situation demands it.”
However, Schmidt wants the Werkself to “be brave” in Munich: “We’ve had a couple of good games against Bayern - particularly at home. Now we want to do the same in Munich. We’re capable of giving any team in Europe a game and that’s we’ll set out to do on Saturday night.”
There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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Bayer 04 have won each of their last five competitive encounters with 1. FC Köln, and it's around seven years since their last defeat in the cathedral city. That said, the hosts are in strong form at home and will make it anything but easy for the Werkself at the RheinEnergieSTADION on Sunday afternoon (kick-off 15:30 CET). The Matchday News.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 2-0 win against Hamburger SV on Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga.
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1. FC Köln host Bayer 04 on Sunday 8 November (kick-off 15:30 CET) in the 75th Bundesliga derby between the Rhineland neighbours. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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