In addition to three goalkeepers, Peter Bosz had 17 outfield players (16 pros plus Jan Boller from the U19s) at his disposal. In addition to long-term injuries Joel Pohjanpalo and Panos Retsos, the head coach had to manage without Wendell plus Sven and Lars Bender who completed individual sessions. Bosz is not unduly concerned regarding the Bayern match: "I don't think that will be a problem." Also, Charles Aránguiz only completed part of the session with the team on the training ground before disappearing into the BayArena with the fitness coaches. "It was an intensive training session today – that wasn't suitable for everybody," said the coach.
The session on the pitch started for the Werkself, including birthday boy Sam Schreck, with a short passing game in two groups before Bosz extended the pitches for a one-touch session with his players. That was followed by short sprint drills, which Kevin Volland, Karim Bellarabi and Tin Jedvaj sat out, and a practice match at the end.. Peter Bosz stretched his players in an eight-a-side game on half a pitch. He played 5×8 minutes with exactly two minutes in between for a breather. "That's important for fitness levels," said the 55-year-old before the last short game as motivation.
There will be no full training session on Wednesday. The sessions on Thursday and Friday will be held behind closed doors as preparations continue in earnest for the game against Bayern. At the BayArena on Saturday, Bosz is expecting "a good game. Two teams face each other who like to get on the front foot. That’s always good for the fans," he said. "Bayern have to win – and they also want to win," said the Dutchman about the team currently lying second in the table, six points behind Borussia Dortmund ahead of matchday 20. "If it's possible, I'll do my former club a favour on Saturday," added Bosz with a wink of the eye. "But in case we win, we're primarily doing it for ourselves of course.”
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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