The absence of the skipper Lars Bender was a purely precautionary move according to Herrlich after his late withdrawal ahead of the Augsburg game – there is no reason to think he will not be fit for the match away to RB Leipzig on Monday night (9 April, 20.30 CET). The 28-year-old trained on his own at the BayArena for that reason.
Herrlich also indicated Jonathan Tah and Joel Pohjanpalo should be ok. The latter has returned to light training after the injury to his right ankle and is expected to rejoin full training in the second half of the week. Tah is very likely to make an earlier return. He was kicked on the thigh near the end of Saturday's game. "The doctors are very positive and he will definitely be fit by Monday. He may even return to training tomorrow," said Herrlich after the training session on Tuesday.
Herrlich and his fellow coaches concentrated on working on the indecision in finishing evident in recent games - shooting was on the agenda. "Of course, the pressure on us has increased after the defeats against Hertha and Köln. We particularly lacked precision in the final third and we were untidy at times. We will continue to work on being more focused," said Herrlich looking forward to the important game in Leipzig that ends matchday 29 with the Werkself keen to pick up three points.
It took exactly 60 minutes for the Werkself to take the lead through a perfectly finished counter-attack by Patrik Schick in the first leg of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off at Olympiacos. Referring to the meeting in the league phase and the initially squandered opportunities, coach Kasper Hjulmand said afterwards: "I thought: 'Oh no, déjà-vu.'" But after the opening goal, it took just 144 seconds for the Czech to spark more wild celebrations among those in black and red in the Greek cauldron, when Schick nodded in Alejandro Grimaldo's corner. Much to the delight of the Bayer 04 fans, his teammates and his coach, who had warm words for the striker in the aftermath. The Werkself Review.
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Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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