
“Leverkusen blow away Essen frustration,” is the headline in the BILD match report and that is followed by a glowing assessment: “That was a treat!”
The press reports particularly praise the performance in the first half. “The Werkself outplayed the unusually passive and nervous VfB with clever use of space, quick passing and frequent involvement of the wingers,” was the analysis in the kicker online.
The Cologne-based Stadt-Anzeiger is similarly enthusiastic: “Without a shadow of a doubt in their footballing ability, the team led by coach Peter Bosz did well to exploit the big gaps in the Stuttgart defence and created chances and openings practically every minute,” the newspaper reports in describing the Werkself performance and it also identifies the “desire and joy of the Leverkusen strikers, who were full of interpassing.”
RP ONLINE take a close look after the opener from Kerem Demirbay and come to the following conclusion: “The resulting celebration of the midfielder illustrates the relief at the lead that gave the Werkself confidence.”
The Welt am Sonntag describes the phase after the opening goal as follows: “Bayer were absolutely outstanding and the visitors were lucky that only one goal was scored before the break.” There was a nice side note: “For Demirbay, who this time scored from a Bailey lay-off, it was his second brace in his 117th Bundesliga game.”
The EXPRESS also highlights two other players behind the Leverkusen win in addition to Demirbay. “Moussa Diaby set up three goals – and there was the record goal from Florian Wirtz to make it 4-1,” the newspaper reports. “The former FC Köln player became the first player under 18 to score five goals in the Bundesliga.”

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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