"Following the 4-0 home win against Borussia Mönchengladbach, the Black and Reds are looking for the first away win in the current Bundesliga season after the 1-1 draw at Union Berlin. And the signs are very positive from a Bayer 04 perspective. One reason is the stats: The Werkself have not lost any of the previous 20 Bundesliga matches against Augsburg (13 wins, 7 draws). “It's definitely an oddity," said Leverkusen's coach Seoane looking at the statistics, "but every game starts at 0-0. For us as a team it's about focusing on the next opponent week by week."
The win against Gladbach has provided a "boost" for the forthcoming challenges. "You could see that in training this week," reported the Swiss manager. However, it is "very important to find out why the performance was good. Our aim against Augsburg must be to achieve a similar level of performance – as a team and individually." That means: The strength in challenges shown by Bayer 04 against Gladbach and the aggressive counter pressing will also be required at Augsburg to achieve a positive result.
Once again, Seoane will have to manage without Karim Bellarabi and Lucas Alario at Augsburg in addition to long-term injuries Edmond Tapsoba (ankle) and Timothy Fosu-Mensah (cruciate). Bellarabi and Alario did take part in full training this week but are not available for the away fixture at FCA. And Julian Baumgartlinger (knee) will also not travel with the team to Augsburg.
It appears extremely likely that new signing Piero Hincapie will be in the Werkself squad for the first time at Augsburg. "He trained all week and has good basic fitness as he completed the first part of the pre-season in Argentina. He's definitely available," explained Seoane. With Amine Adli, who signed a five-year deal in Leverkusen on Thursday, the coaching staff will see how he does in the final pre-match training session.
Seoane has seen a positive development with his team after three games. "The players take on board lots of points we bring up in training," said the former defender before adding: "That started with the cup game, then in Berlin and now against Gladbach. The Gladbach match is a really good yardstick. If we manage to produce that aggression and solidarity on the pitch week by week then we will definitely be able to make better use of our playing ability."
That worked very well against the Foals. But now the incentive must be, "to regularly show that throughout the season in different competitions." He added," It's a much bigger target than a position."
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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