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
Kicking off the new season with a fresh look: Bayer 04, in collaboration with sportswear manufacturer New Balance, has unveiled the official kit for Leverkusen’s e-Sports players for the coming season. The jersey is now available from the Bayer 04 online shop and the Fanwelt.
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Paulo Sergio and Bayer 04 have enjoyed close ties since the Werkself training camp in his native Brazil last summer. The club legend is in charge of the Bayer 04 Soccer Academy, which opened in the summer of 2025, and he has also been at this year’s training camp in the Weimarer Land. As well as interacting with the many fans who travelled to the camp, the 1994 World Cup winner used the time to plan the next steps for the Academy together with club officials. In an interview with bayer04.de, Sergio spoke about the project’s future development, the upcoming visit by young Academy players to Leverkusen, and plans for the coming months in Germany and Brazil.
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A round-up of the Werkself training camp in the Weimarer Land, all in one place: in our daily blog you’ll find all the insights and updates from the day. Day five (Thursday 6 August) is as follows: The squad have the final open session of the training camp in the morning. After lunch, there will be a team event.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have signed Spanish left-back Miguel Gutiérrez from Napoli. The 25-year-old has signed a contract with the club to 30 June 2031. Gutiérrez came through the youth ranks at Real Madrid; he moved to Italy a year ago from Girona, and he played a key role for Napoli with 36 appearances. The big Italian club finished last season as runners-up in Serie A.
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