The first DFB Cup final for Bayer 04 was played on 12 June of that year. The opponents, the Hertha Berlin second team, were the rank outsiders. 15,000 Black and Red fans followed their team to Berlin. The Werkself were in control of the game for the full 90 minutes and only conceded one shot on goal. Equally, the favourites found it hard to penetrate the Hertha defence. Then, on 77 minutes, the striker Ulf Kirsten broke the deadlock with a header from a Pavel Hapal cross. 1-0 to the Werkself! That secured the club’s second title after the UEFA Cup win in 1988.
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Vollborn - Foda, Wörns, Fischer, Lupescu, Kree, Happe, Scholz, Hapal, Thom, Kirsten
Hertha BSC Reserves: Fiedler - O. Schmidt (73. Höpfner), Meyer, Nied, Kolczyk, Ramelow, Klews, A. Schmidt, Kaiser, Holzbecher, Gezen
Goals: 1-0 Kirsten (77’)
Referee: Dr. Markus Merk (Kaiserslautern)
Booked: Kirsten - /
Attendance: 76.391
The #B04 eSports team made a successful start to the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship finals. Marc and Sean Landwehr defeated the hosts of the event, Hamburger SV, in the Round of 16. The quarter-final in the German club championship will be played on Sunday, 8 March at 14:00 CET against SC Freiburg, who finished top of the table in the league phase.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 3-3 draw at SC Freiburg on Matchday 25 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...
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Freiburg’s defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt last weekend left them two places but a whole 10 points behind Bayer 04. Their results in general may be mixed, but Julian Schuster’s side are a force to be reckoned with at home, where they have earned 24 of their 33 points. Leverkusen may choose to look for the aerial route if they’re to get the better of their hosts, who have conceded more headed goals than any other team. Here’s all you need to know ahead of Saturday afternoon’s game in our matchday news.
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A boost for the second Bundesliga away game in a row: The Werkself take on SC Freiburg just three days after the convincing 1-0 win at Hamburger SV. Ahead of the game on Saturday, 7 March (kick-off: 15:30 CET), head coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the lessons learned from the rearranged fixture at HSV, a trio on yellow cards and young players like Christian Kofane and Montrell Culbreath.
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