VfL Wolfsburg have cleaned up all national titles in German women's football over the past four years – "they are an exceptional team, famous throughout Europe," said Bayer 04 head coach Achim Feifel ahead of the game. "You need a lot more than normal against an opponent like that – a fantastic team performance and players who excel on the day," the coach declared.
The Champions League finalists clearly dominated the FLYERALARM Women's Bundesliga last season as in the years before giving away only four points in two draws. And the Wolves have continued this season where they left off: There was a 3-0 win in the opening game against Essen; that was followed by a 4-1 victory at Hoffenheim and a 2-0 win against newly promoted Meppen. Over the summer, VfL lost an outstanding striker in Germany's Women's Footballer of the Year, Pernille Harder but they did bring in a promising replacement in Shanice van de Sanden from Chelsea and she was a three-time Champions League winner with Lyon.
"We know what to expect in terms of the quality of the opposition. It's important we are incredibly aggressive in defence but decisive after winning the ball, show ambition in transition play and are effective in taking the chances we get," said Feifel who is still struggling with squad availability.
Nina Brüggemann (muscular problem) is still not an option, just like Sylwia Matysik who has a calf injury. Jessica Wich was unable to train during the week due to back problems – there is a question mark over her as there is with Henrietta Csiszár (muscular problem). Ann-Kathrin Vinken has returned to full training after recovering from a bruised hip.
At the start of a double fixture week, Feifel will not rest anyone in view of the games against Frankfurt in Bremen: “We can't take the double fixture week into account. We want to get a result against Wolfsburg so we have to give everything. We will field the fittest team in all three games.”
Bayer 04 had originally set a limit of 96 on the number of spectators at the Kurtekotten Performance Centre. Due to the increase in the seven-day infection rate, which has rapidly increased in and around Leverkusen and was over 35 on Friday morning, 2 October, this match will now be played behind closed doors.
Attacking midfielder Paulina Bartz is leaving Bayer 04 Leverkusen for good on a permanent move to Hamburger SV in the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga. The 21-year-old, who was on loan to the newly promoted side in the winter, originally had a contract to 2027.
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The Bayer 04 Football School opened in 2007 – now this successful programme is getting a new name and a new logo: with immediate effect, the Bayer 04 Football School powered by BarmeniaGothaer is becoming the Bayer 04 Football Academy powered by BarmeniaGothaer.
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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 personal 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…
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The sustainable use of the BayArena seats removed as part of the current stadium upgrade has taken on a new dimension: Following on from numerous Bayer 04 fans receiving their ‘Undefeated Champions seats’ and various clubs and community organisations from Leverkusen and the wider region having collected the dismantled seats, Blau-Gelbe Kreuz e.V. also made their way to the BayArena recently. The German-Ukrainian aid organisation took away around 2,100 seats; in Ukraine, these will be used to upgrade the sports infrastructure of two clubs.
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