
"Although there was nothing more to play for, we didn't want to ease off," said Schmidt before continuing: "My team was full of enthusiasm for the game and they scored some great goals."
Boosted by that victory, the Werkself will be looking to make up ground in the Bundesliga away to Schalke on Sunday (17.30 CET). "For me, it's one of the most attractive away games," said Schmidt before recalling two good matches in Gelsenkirchen in the past two seasons. In April of this year, his team won 3-2 and in 2015 Karim Bellarabi scored the only goal of the game in the 1-0 win at Schalke.
Hunting for points
"It'll be another good game of football on Saturday," promised Schmidt before adding: "We want to get a result." Results have been a big disappointment in recent weeks. "We're on track, we’ve played lots of good games after the match at Lotte – however with differing results," said Schmidt. That should all change now.
"We have to concentrate on the next game and if we go on a run then the table will look different," said Schmidt. At the moment, his team is ninth in the Bundesliga on 17 points – level with eighth-placed Schalke.


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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