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"Tomorrow is one of the most important games for us," declared coach Xabi Alonso at today's press conference when asked how he assesses the forthcoming clash with VfB Stuttgart. The 2010 World Cup winner is again demanding full concentration for this enormously important game: "We need a top level performance tomorrow. Stuttgart are a good team and they deserve to be higher up in the table. We'll have to be on the front foot and attack."
The idea is to build on the last two wins in the home game against Union Berlin (5-0) and the away derby at FC Köln (2-1) to be able to go into the World Cup break in positive mood: "It would be a very important win above all in relation to the table," declared Alonso.
Looking back at the derby in Cologne, the Spanish coach found words of praise particularly for the second half display: "Last week was very intense and the first half in the game against FC Köln was therefore lacking energy. But we showed our mentality in the second half and posed problems to the opponents. Our substitutions with Nadiem (Amiri, ed.), Amine (Adli, ed.) and Odi (Odilon Kossounou, ed.) gave us a good boost. We were able to see again how important each individual player is to us," explained the coach.
Sardar Azmoun and Florian Wirtz are still ruled out for the clash with VfB Stuttgart. The 19-year-old will however be on the #Bayer04USATour with the Werkself setting off immediately after the Stuttgart match. Alonso will also have to manage without Patrik Schick (groin) and Charles Aránguiz (calf) for the game against the Swabians. Daley Sinkgraven will be back in the squad after the Dutchman became a father again for the second time yesterday. Xabi Alonso also congratulated Jeremie Frimpong at the press conference on his call-up to the Netherlands World Cup squad. "I'm happy for him. He's earned this chance."
The BayArena has again sold out for the final competitive match of 2022. 30,210 fans will watch the game between the Werkself and VfB Stuttgart. That means the BayArena has been sold out for six of the last seven home games. The Werkself will again be looking to get a result against the Swabians and give fans another reason to celebrate before the start of the World Cup break.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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Bayer 04 face Hamburger SV for the first time in almost eight years. Although the Hanseatic city team are often below par on the road, they are regularly in top form in front of their own fans. In particular, 18-year-old shooting star Luka Vuskovic is proving to be a real bonus for Merlin Polzin's team, both in attack and defence. However, that should not scare the Werkself: Not only was the last defeat against the newly promoted team 17 games ago, but Kasper Hjulmand's players are in with a chance of securing their fifth win in six games against HSV. Today’s matchday news.
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Hamburger SV and Bayer 04 meet again in the Bundesliga for the first time in almost eight years. This Tuesday evening, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET), the promoted team with impressive home form welcome the Werkself to the Volksparkstadion to round off the Hinrunde. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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