The second round will be played on Tuesday 26 October and Wednesday 27 October. Exact fixture details will be announced in due course. Then the start of ticket sales will be released.
Sporting director Simon Rolfes: "KSC are an interesting opponent, a team with ambition in the second division. We are at home and we want to live up to our role as favourites."
Head coach Gerardo Seoane: "I'm looking forward to this game as the cup competition is something special. Of course, we face certain expectations as the higher placed club. But we also have them ourselves. The next round is the clear target and that's how we want to approach the game against Karlsruhe from the start."
While the Werkself and KSC have played each other 34 times in the Bundesliga the two sides have only meant once before in the DFB Cup. That was a first-round tie at the Wildpakstadion on 11 August 2017. KSC had just been relegated from the second division but performed well and took the game to extra time with a certain amount of luck. Bayer 04 were then able to turn their visual superiority into goals on the scoreboard. Dominik Kohr, Joel Pohjanpalo and Leon Bailey netted the goals in a 3-0 win. The Werkself went through to the second round and only went out of the cup competition at the semi-final stage against Bayern Munich.
Preußen Münster vs Hertha BSC
Waldhof Mannheim vs Union Berlin
VfL Osnabrück vs SC Freiburg
SV Babelsberg vs RB Leipzig
1860 München vs Schalke 04
Hannover 96 vs Fortuna Düsseldorf
VfL Bochum vs FC Augsburg
Borussia Mönchengladbach vs Bayern Munich
Dynamo Dresden vs FC St. Pauli
TSG Hoffenheim vs Holstein Kiel
Jahn Regensburg vs Hansa Rostock
FC Nürnberg vs Hamburg SV
FSV Mainz 05 vs Arminia Bielefeld
VfB Stuttgart vs FC Köln
Borussia Dortmund vs FC Ingolstadt
Round of 16: 18 and 19 January 2022
Quarter-finals: 1 and 2 March
Semi-finals: 19 and 20 April
Final: 21 May in Berlin
Today brings the first match of the season for the Werkself. Bayer 04 kick off the 2026/27 campaign today, Saturday 22 August, at 13:00 CEST with a first-round DFB Pokal tie away to third-tier side SV Wehen Wiesbaden. The 3,700 travelling fans can not only look forward to what will hopefully be a successful start to the season, but also now organise their journeys to Black and Reds games even more easily via the WERKSELFgo car-share platform. Meanwhile, following two defeats at the start of the league season, SV Wehen are hoping to spring a surprise in the DFB Pokal tie. Today’s matchday news.
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Carolin Simon is the new captain of the Bayer 04 women’s team. The full-back, who joined from Bayern Munich in the summer, will take over the captain’s armband for the 2026/27 season. Simon returned to Leverkusen in the summer after ten years away. The 33-year-old succeeds goalkeeper Friederike Repohl, who retired at the end of last season.
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Bayer 04 start the 2026/27 season away to third-division side SV Wehen Wiesbaden. Ahead of the DFB Pokal tie on Saturday 22 August (kick-off: 13:00 CEST), head coach Carles Martínez spoke at the pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon. The topics: anticipation, passion, the fans’ support – and the captaincy for the new season.
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After 62 days of preparation, the time has finally come: the Werkself kick off the new Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga season on Sunday (16:00 CEST) with an away match at RB Leipzig. Following a major shake-up over the summer, with eleven players leaving and twelve new signings, initial impressions from the past few weeks have given manager Roberto Pätzold great cause for optimism.
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SV Wehen Wiesbaden undoubtedly envisaged a different start to the new season. After two matchdays, the Hessen side currently sit bottom of the Liga 3 table. On Saturday 22 August (kick-off: 13:00 CEST), SVWW host the Werkself in the first round of the DFB Pokal at their home ground, the BRITA Arena. It was there, in this very competition a year ago, that the club almost pulled off a massive upset. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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