
The headline in the Bild Zeitung: 'Mad win! Bayer finally play magical football' and the report reads: "This timely win is HERRLICH (brilliant)! Volland (8') plus the two Bremen lads Brandt (38'/born on the Weser) and Bellarabi (45'/spent six seasons in the Werder youth set-up) settled it by the break – 0-3. Bremen have never been further behind at the break."
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung sum up the match and the result in one sentence: 'Leverkusen take werder apart." The article reads: "Heiko Herrlich's future was up for discussion after just eight points from eight games. Werder made it easy for his team to win their third game of the season with some tenous defensive work. At the same time, Bremen fought back from 3-0 down to 3-2 in the second half. But Havertz’ wonderful chip at 4-2 and Pavlenka's error for the 5-2 enabled Leverkusen to relax. The tempo of this lively team in the stadium was brilliant... Eight or nine goals for Leverkusen would have been possible on the night."
The Bonner General Anzeiger saw the unexpected runaway victory from the viewpoint of the coach: 'Herrlich (brilliant) for Herrlich' was the headline.The report continued: "With counter-attacking football par excellence, Bayer Leverkusen were able to halt their downward slide against a Bremen side strong at home and remove coach Heiko Herrlich from the line of fire. The Rhinelanders won 6-2 at Werder in a hig-quality game and inflicted the first home defeat on the North Germans since the coach Florian Kohfeldt took over in October 2017. Since then, Bremen went 16 games unbeaten in front of their own fans in the Bundesliga."
The Rheinische Post declares: "Bayer blast their way out of a crisis.". The Munich-based Abendzeitung says: "Bayer blaze away."
The Kölner Stadt Anzeiger reports: Bayer 04 rolled over the in-form Bremen side at the Weserstadion with a 6-2 victory in the best performance of the season. It could be a new start for the Werkself. 'Of course, now we've raised the bar very high ourselves. And now we'll have to be evalued accordingly," said Julian Brandt. 'We don't want to produce performances like that very eight weeks but rather more regularly. Best of all, in Wednesday's cup game at Gladbach.'"
Like many other journalists, this reporter focused on the events after the final whistle: "Rudi Völler actually wanted to celebrate the runaway victory at his old stomping ground in peace. But then Bayer's sporting managing director was forced to make one of his famous rants. "That was a disgrace. Incredible," raged Völler after he heard the pay TV broadcaster Sky was speculating about the future of Heiko Herrlich in spite of the runaway victory."
The conclusion of the Kicker reads: "With a rousing 6-2 win at Werder Bremen, Bayer Leverkusen have blown away all their frustration. Against a mostly overstretched Bremen defence, that had to manage without main man Moisander, the fast Leverkusen attack of Brandt, Bellarabi and Co. rarely had any problems."


The German Football League (DFL) has announced the three candidates for the title of Bundesliga Rookie of the Month for January. That includes Werkself player Jarell Quansah. Fans of Bayer 04 can vote for their favourite on the Bundesliga app from now until Thursday, 5 January (23:59 CET).
Show more
As in the past two years, the Werkself are aiming to come out on top in the DFB Pokal quarter-finals on Tuesday night, 3 February (kick-off: 20:45 CET). With eleven home games in a row without defeat against the Kiezkicker, the Black and Reds go into the floodlit match in confident mood. But the Pokal, as is often said, has its own magic and the team from the Millerntor has much more to offer than the current 17th place in the Bundesliga would suggest. After all, Bayer 04 are one of the big German teams the combative Hamburgers have already made life difficult for this season. The matchday news.
Show more
The Leverkusen eSports team picked up valuable points and made up ground in the overall table with a top four finish in the offline round in Showdown 4 in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26. In the round of 16, Showdown 1 winners Bayer 04 defeated the unbeaten runners-up in the previous round, VfL Bochum, in a thrilling penalty shoot-out. The Landwehr cousins, themselves the current club runners-up, then beat the current club champions and Showdown 3 winners RB Leipzig. It was not until the semi-finals that they lost out to the eventual showdown winners Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Show more
Bayer 04 Leverkusen have strengthened the goalkeeper position for the second half of the season. Germany keeper Rafaela Borggräfe has joined the Werkself on loan from English FA Women's Super League (WSL) club Liverpool until the end of the season.
Show more
Bayer 04 have agreed a loan move for U19s striker Ken Izekor to join Bundesliga 2 club Eintracht Braunschweig on loan for the rest of the 2025/26 season.
Show more