September brings the 28th Champions League campaign – and Barcelona will feature for the 25th time. The reigning Spanish champions have the highest number of appearances in the Champions League. The Catalans only missed out in 1995/1996, 1996/1997 and 2003/2004.
This will be the twelfth time for Bayer 04 and that puts the Werkself level with European giants like Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain and ahead of famous clubs like Atletico Madrid (nine times) and Manchester City (eight times). Of all the German clubs, only Bayern Munich (ahead of their 23rd appearance) and Borussia Dortmund (14) have competed in Europe's elite club competition more often.
Iker Casillas has played in goal 177 times in the Champions League and thereby holds the record number of appearances. Possibly his best performance in this competition was against Bayer 04: In the 2002 final, the then 20-year-old keeper came on and prevented the Werkself equalising in the second half with several brilliant saves, thereby helping Real Madrid to lift the trophy. It remains to be seen whether he can add to the total. The now 38-year-old Casillas is recovering from a heart attack and his club FC Porto have to take part in the qualifying rounds to progress to the Champions League proper. However, the Spaniard will retain his record for at least another year: Even if second-placed Cristiano Ronaldo plays in all games with Juventus up to and including the final then he would 'only' have made 175 appearances.
Just like Casillas, the Werkself player with the record number of parents was also in the 2002 final where he led Bayer 04 onto the pitch as captain. Carsten Ramelow heads the ranking in the club with 49 appearances for Leverkusen in the Champions League between 1997 and 2005. He is closely followed by Bernd Schneider (46). Of the current squad, the skipper Lars Bender (26) has made the most appearances.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi were head-to-head at the top of this category for a long time but now the Portuguese has a slight lead. With 126 goals, Ronaldo is a top goalscorer in the Champions League with Messi in second place with 112 goals. There is a considerable gap to the Real legend Raúl (72) in third place.
The top Bayer 04 goalscorer in the Champions League is shared by two players: Michael Ballack and Ulf Kirsten have each found the back of the net nine times, followed by Oliver Neuville (eight goals) and Dimitar Berbatov (seven). Of the Bayer 04 squad for next season's competition, as it stands, three players have scored for the Werkself in the Champions League: Lars Bender (2011 against Genk) and Kevin Volland (2016 in Moscow) have each scored once, Karim Bellarabi twice (2012 at Barcelona and 2017 against Atletico Madrid).
Two teams share top spot in this ranking: Liverpool beat Besiktas 8-0 in November 2010 with Andrej Voronin and Sami Hyypiä in their line-up. Real Madrid achieved the same scoreline against the Swedish club Malmö in December 2015 with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a hat-trick.
Bayer 04 experienced a night of top European football on 23 October 2013. The Werkself beat Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine 4-0 – up to now the club's biggest win in the Champions League. Stefan Kießling opened the scoring in the first half with a header, Simon Rolfes netted from the penalty spot and Sidney Sam made it three in the second half. And the scoring was rounded off with a second goal on the night for Kießling.
Even now, the Camp Nou in Barcelona regularly tops the attendances in the Champions League. The 100,000 capacity of the current stadium does not compare with the quarter-final first leg in 1994/95. 115,000 spectators saw Barcelona draw 1-1 with Paris Saint-Germain following the extension to the lower tier over the previous summer. After 90 years the safety regulations issued by UEFA reduced the capacity to the current level.
The biggest crowd at a Bayer 04 tie was again on a magical night of European football for the Werkself. On 2 November 2016, 85,512 spectators were at the legendary Wembley Stadium to see a 1-0 away win for an impressive Werkself side against this year's finalists Tottenham Hotspur. Kevin Kampl scored the only goal of the game before running to celebrate with the Leverkusen supporters. Images that no Werkself supporter will forget in a hurry – and images that we might see again next season.
Two Saturdays, one Friday and one Sunday: The dates for the Bayer 04 Women's team games on matchdays 16 to 19 have been finalised. Three of the four matches scheduled by the German Football Association (DFB) on Tuesday will be played at home at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
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Despite a courageous display, the Bayer 04 Women missed out on a surprise at the start of the second half of the Bundesliga season. Coach Roberto Pätzold's team lost 3-0 to league leaders Bayern Munich on Monday night. An early goal from the clinical visitors, a disputed penalty and another spot-kick prevented Leverkusen, who are seventh in the table on 22 points from 14 games, from picking up a point in front of 3,011 spectators at the sold-out Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
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The Werkself rang in the Black and Red festive season with an emotional visit to Klinikum Leverkusen. Kristin Kögel, Melissa Friedrich and Louisa Remien from the Bayer 04 Women's team and Jonas Hofmann, Janis Blaswich and Niklas Lomb from the first team visited the young patients on the children's ward and, for the first time, on the ‘Zeitinsel’ children's palliative care unit. They brought a host of lovingly wrapped presents ensuring a big surprise for young and old alike.
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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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