
Four and a half months after the Grand Final, where ‘DETO’ was named best PlayStation player of the year, started the 2020/21 VBL season on Monday night. For the opening fixture, Bayer 04, as yet without the new duo Anna Klink and Marc Landwehr, faced Holstein Kiel in the North-West section.
‘DETO’ was keen to get on the attack against Kiel’s Cihat ‘CIHAT6161’ Korkmaz in a one-on-one on PlayStation 4 and he was awarded a penalty on five virtual minutes. The two-time world champion missed the spot kick but shortly after that he took an early lead through Moussa Diaby (12’). After an equaliser from Korkmaz (32’), ‘DETO’ restored the lead through youngster Samed Onur (48’). The second youth player in Wollin’s two-man attack, Yannick Schlößer, sealed the result in the closing stages (85’). Karim Bellarabi rounded off the scoring with a penalty on 90 minutes to pick up their first three points.
“We’ve trained very hard and intensively for weeks, so it’s great to start with a win on matchday one,” said Wollin after the opening victory, “I’m happy but, of course, there’s room for improvement. It was important to pick up the points first time out.”
And Fabian ‘B04_DUBZJE’ De Cae carried on in his individual match on Xbox, where ‘DETO’ had left off: Against Holstein-eSports player Benedict ‘B3NN1FIFA’ Ratzlaff, the Leverkusen player netted three times with the virtual Schlößer and goal number four was scored by Onur. Two 4-1 scorelines in the individual games for Bayer 04 for starters. “We’ve never started a season as well before,” said De Cae.
The narrow 4-3 defeat in the doubles game did slightly detract from the positive mood in the end but the Werkself eSports players were able to celebrate one or two triumphs on the console later on.
Late in the evening, there were clashes with VfL Wolfsburg. ‘DETO’ again started with an individual match where the Leverkusen player drew 1-1 with Timo ‘TIMOX’ Siep. ‘B04_DUBZJE’ came out on top with a 4-3 win in a one-on-one game against Benedikt ‘BENECR7X’ – and the double fixture also ended with a 2-0 win for #B04eSports.
After the first matchday in the newly created North-West section, the Black and Reds are in top spot – the VBL has been split into two divisions for the first time due to the high number of participating teams (26).
From 16.30 CET on next Tuesday, 17 November, there are three games against the current VBL bottom-placed team SC Paderborn. From 20.00 CET the opponents for Bayer 04 are FC St. Pauli.


Werkself TV shows the highlights of the 4-0 victory in the friendly match against KRC Genk...
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The Werkself continue their 2026/27 pre-season preparations with their third friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion on Wednesday 29 July (kick-off 15:00 CEST). Werkself-TV is broadcasting the match live and in full in a stream from 14:50 CEST...

After the children from the Bayer 04 Football Academy grilled Janis Blaswich and Simeon Rapsch last week, another group of 20 young Werkself fans gathered at the BayArena press conference room on Tuesday afternoon, 28 July . This time, the kids directed their questions at Tim Oermann and Jonah Berghoff. Defender Oermann raved about his school days, whilst talented midfielder Berghoff revealed to the young footballers, amongst other things, who his favourite player is – and he is also at Bayer 04. To round things off, the pair naturally obliged with all requests for autographs and selfies.
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Bayer 04 are back on the pitch. Following the first training sessions, the Werkself play the first pre-season friendly on Saturday, July 18. The match against Oberliga club Sportfreunde Baumberg kicks off at 15:30 CEST in Monheim am Rhein. Fans unable to attend the match can watch head coach Carles Martínez’s first game in charge for free via a livestream at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app, as well as on Werkself.tv (exclusively for members). Just log on and watch the games live. All the other Werkself preseason friendlies leading up to the 2026/27 season will also be streamed live for free.
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