Seoane sees the game against the team sitting sixth in Italy’s Serie A as a very complex endeavour. “Both teams are very attacking but also have a compact defence,” the 43-year-old said. The hosts may be without two strikers in Duvan Zapata and Josip Ilicic, but the Swiss tactician still regards Gian Piero Gasperini’s side as a good and dangerous collective. “They’ve developed well in recent years. It’ll be a tough job, but we can do it.”
Goalkeeper Hradecky has prior experience of facing Gasperini’s team. “I played a friendly here in Bergamo with Frankfurt in 2016 pre-season,” the 32-year-old stated at the press conference. “They were still on their way to the top in Italy at the time. Now they’re a very experienced European team.”
The Leverkusen No.1 is looking forward to an exciting tie against the Italians: “They are extremely aggressive and snappy, but we’ve studied their team well and have to show a mature performance tomorrow.”
Seoane has 19 players available to him for Thursday. The players who haven’t made the journey are goalkeeper Andrey Lunev (ankle), striker Patrik Schick (muscular), winger Karim Bellarabi (muscular), and midfielders Robert Andrich (knee problems), Julian Baumgartlinger (not in the European squad) and Kerem Demirbay (suspended).
Demirbay’s suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards means Seoane has already confirmed that Charles Aranguiz and Exequiel Palacios will be his two holding midfielders. “Both are well capable of being able to make a mark in attack and defence.”
A special award for special social commitment. At this year's ceremony for the Sepp Herberger Awards in Wolfsburg on Monday night, the DFB Sepp Herberger Foundation recognised Bayer 04 in the social rehabilitation category. The Bundesliga club received the prize, together with €12,000, for its great service to inmates, particularly in the Wuppertal-Ronsdorf prison.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 1-2 loss at VfL Wolfsburg on the 20th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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The Werkself suffered another setback in the tight race for third place in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga. Roberto Pätzold's side lost 2-1 at VfL Wolfsburg in a hard-fought contest on Sunday evening, with Vanessa Fudalla's goal in stoppage time proving too little too late. Leverkusen have dropped to sixth in the table with 31 points, four off third place.
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The Bundesliga home game against VfL Wolfsburg in the first half of the season was one of those classic ‘days to forget’ for Bayer 04 Women. It started with goalkeeper Charlotte Voll being shown a red card in the first minute of the game, and following a further sending-off, coach Roberto Pätzold's 9-women side ended up losing 5-1 to last season's runners-up. At 18.30 CET on Sunday, they'll have the chance to exact revenge at the AOK Stadium - and pick up valuable points in the race for third place.
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After full time in the 1-1 draw against FC Bayern Munich, the Bayer 04 fans first had to catch their breath. Firstly because of their usual loud support, and secondly because of the great drama they'd witnessed on the pitch: three disallowed goals, two red cards and a Werkself side who "again produced a very good performance against strong opponents", as head coach Kasper Hjulmand described. The Dane was particularly enthused by the performance of young Montrell Culbreath, while Patrik Schick got to enjoy his 200th appearance under the Cross. The Werkself Review unpacks the action.
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