Gina Lückenkemper, sprinter with TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen and double medal winner at the recent athletics European Championships in Berlin, picked the Werkself out as the fifth-last ball in the draw held at the football Museum in Dortmund on Sunday evening for an away tie at league rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach. The second round of the cup will be played on 30 and 31 October – with four games at 18.30 CET and four at 20.45 CET on both nights.
That means that Heiko Herrlich's team can wreak revenge for yesterday's opening defeat in the Bundesliga in two months time. Last season, the Werkself knocked the Rhine rivals out of the DFB Cup – that came in the Round of 16 with a 1-0 victory just before Christmas at Borussia Park. "An exciting draw. Of course, we have good memories of the cup game last season. We want to repeat our success at Gladbach. It's a huge challenge," said the Werkself head coach after the draw. Gladbach beat Oberliga side BSC Hastedt 11-1 in the first round of the DFB Cup.
Tickets for the cup away game are planned to go on sale on 11 September.
DFB Cup Round Two draw in full:
Hansa Rostock (Division three) v FC Nürnberg (Bundesliga)
Weiche Flensburg (Regional League) v Werder Bremen (Bundesliga)
Chemie Leipzig (Oberliga) v SC Paderborn (Division two)
SSV Ulm (Regional League) v Fortuna Düsseldorf (Bundesliga)
SV Wehen Wiesbaden (Division three) v Hamburg SV (Division two)
SV Rödinghausen (Regional League) v Bayern Munich(Bundesliga)
Holstein Kiel (Division two) v SC Freiburg (Bundesliga)
Arminia Bielefeld (Division two) v MSV Duisburg (Division two)
FC Heidenheim (Division two) v SV Sandhausen (Division two)
RB Leipzig (Bundesliga) v TSG Hoffenheim (Bundesliga)
1. FC Köln (Division two) v FC Schalke 04 (Bundesliga)
Hannover 96 (Bundesliga) v VfL Wolfsburg (Bundesliga)
Darmstadt 98 (Division two) v Hertha BSC (Bundesliga)
Borussia Mönchengladbach (Bundesliga) v Bayer 04
FC Augsburg (Bundesliga) v Mainz 05 (Bundesliga)
Bor. Dortmund (Bundesliga) v Union Berlin (Division two)
DFB Cup dates 2018/19:
Round of 16: 5/6 February 2019
Quarter-finals: 2/3 April 2019
Semi-finals: 23/24 April 2019
Final: 25 May 2019
Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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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 personal 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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