
Support from ‘outside’ was not hidden from the press. "Around 80 Bayer fans vocally celebrated the victory against their archrivals in front of the stadium," wrote the EXPRESS, "their chants could be heard in the ground and on TV in the closing stages."
The fact they were able to celebrate the derby victory was in part due to a lightning start by the Werkself. "Diaby left Jannes Horn standing on the right and then provided a pinpoint cross to Bailey at the far post," reports kicker online in praising the assist for the first goal.
The online report on the Eurosport website describes the goalscorer returning the favour in the second half as follows: "Bailey and Diaby counter-attacked following a Köln corner but this time it was Bailey who provided a perfect assist for Diaby with the Frenchman turning the ball into an empty net from close range after Bailey had already taken Timo and Jannes Horn out of the game."
Double goalscorer Bailey received top marks from RP online – also due to his excellent individual move for the final goal. "The 23-year-old was put through by substitute Kerem Demirbay, he evaded Rafael Czichos, Noah Katterbach and Sebastiaan Bornauw in succession and slotted the ball away to make it 3-0," is their assessment.
For the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Bailey was the 'Man of the Match' and 'Best man on the pitch'. "Bayer 04's Jamaican winger scored two goals and provided one assist in his first start under Hannes Wolf," reports the newspaper. "His great solo run to make it 3-0 was the result of his pace and his determination."
BILD reviews the impressive start made by Hannes Wolf and looks to the immediate future. "Leverkusen are back on course for the Europa League after the win," writes the newspaper. "The club have picked up seven points in three games under Wolf. They now face the almost certain champions in Munich on Tuesday."
The assessment in Die Welt looks even higher. "Leverkusen (…) move above Borussia Dortmund into fifth place at least overnight and reinforce (…) their European ambition," is in the online edition of the newspaper. "Fourth place and qualification for the Champions League is still six points away with five games left in the season."

Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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After being nominated for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025, Martin Terrier's wonderful strike for the opener against FC Köln is now also up for selection for the ARD Sportschau Goal of the Month award for December 2025. Bayer 04 fans have until 19:00 CET on 10 January to vote for the French forward.
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After a break of almost two weeks, the Bayer 04 Women begin preparing for games in 2026 on Sunday. Bayer04.de provides an overview of the dates at the start of the second half of the season.
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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