
A "rough ride and an emotional rollercoaster," was the view of the Bayer 04 head coach Gerardo Seoane. The Werkself took an early lead on 11 minutes with a placed shot from the edge of the box by Charles Aránguiz. Atalanta turned the game round in the first half within two minutes with goals from Ruslan Malinovskyi and Luis Muriel. The Colombia international doubled his tally after the restart to put his team 3-1 up. Bayer 04 had goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky to thank that the deficit was not bigger. The Moussa Diaby goal to make it 3-2 rounded off a highly intense match.
Following the exhausting match against the Werkself, the Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini rotated his team last weekend in a 0-0 draw with Genoa in the league. The coach made six changes to his starting line-up. Marco Sportiello made his second league appearance of the season in goal in place of the number one Juan Musso. Giorgio Scalvini and José Luis Palomino came into central defence for Rafael Tolói and Mehri Demiral. Joakim Maehle, Matteo Pessina and Mario Pasalic started in midfield with the Dutch players Marten de Roon and Hans Hateboer plus the Swiss Remo Freuler on the subs bench.
Luis Muriel had the best chance in the first half in a tough game against the side next to bottom in Serie A but he hit the post. In the second half, Pasalic put a shot over the bar from a promising position after impressive work from Teun Koopmeiners. Otherwise, Atalanta were disappointing in front of their own crowd for much of the game. "It's a fair result," said coach Gasperini after the game. "Perhaps we had one more chances than our opponents but they succeeded in disrupting our game and keeping us busy. It was a hard-fought game with lots of battling but little flow. Genoa make life difficult for every opponent." The coach was particularly happy with the development of his midfield player Teun Koopmeiners: "He's a very strong and complete player, has good ball control, good physique and a good passing game."
The one point against Genoa does not really help 'La Dea' in the race for a Champions League spot. They are currently eight points behind Juventus in fourth place albeit with Atalanta having a game in hand.
Gasperini will again rotate in several positions for Thursday night's match at Leverkusen. Musso will be back in goal, captain Tolói in defence and regular starters like de Roon und Freulerback in the midfield. Malinovskyi and Muriel are established up front with Duvan Zapata and Josip Ilicic still sidelined.
"It's all to play for in the second leg and it will be a tight game," said Bayer 04 coach Gerardo Seoane after the game in Bergamo. The Werkself have to win and that will not be an easy task even at home against the team from Lombardy who have the third best away record in Serie A. The away goals rule no longer applies this season. A 1-0 or 2-1 win for the Werkself would lead to extra time.


Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
Show more
This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
Show more
With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
Show more
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 personalised 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…
Show more
RB Leipzig travel to Leverkusen on the back of a winning run: Ole Werner's team have clocked up five wins on the bounce. Currently third in the Bundesliga, qualification for the UEFA Champions League is within reach. This Saturday, 2 May (kick-off: 18:30 CEST), RBL want to take the next step towards next season’s UCL campaign at the BayArena. The lowdown on our next opponents.
Show more