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"Our focus is clear, we're only thinking about the game against West Ham," stressed Jeremie Frimpong straight away. The potentially decisive Bundesliga match at home to SV Werder Bremen on Sunday, where the Werkself could clinch the Bundesliga title, will not be on anyone's mind until afterwards. Frimpong added: "We want to give ourselves a good starting point for the second leg in London next week. It won't be easy because West Ham have a fantastic team, but these are exactly the games we look forward to. We want to test ourselves against top teams."
Regarding the defeat to AS Roma in the semi-finals of last season's competition, Frimpong said: "Obviously that wasn't easy for us, but perhaps that's one reason why we have a stronger mentality this season. We want to win every game and just don't like losing."
West Ham, winners of the UEFA Europa Conference League last year, beat SC Freiburg 5-1 on aggregate in the round of 16 of this competition. In those encounters, but also in their league matches, Xabi Alonso has seen "a physically strong team with great individual quality". The Bayer 04 head coach also highlighted "their great experience in Europe, which also gives them the necessary calmness in difficult periods of the game". For his team, that means: "We need to play with patience but a lot of tempo tomorrow, and have a good balance between our attack and defence. Only by doing that will we manage to take a good result to the second leg in London."
Alonso confirmed that Matej Kovar will again start in goal in the quarter-final first leg at the BayArena, while the Spaniard also announced the return of Arthur to the squad. The Brazilian has been out since Bundesliga Matchday 3. Only Adam Hlozek, who sustained an ankle injury against Union Berlin last weekend, is unavailable to face the Hammers.
The connection between the club, the Bayer company and the fans in the city was also brought up at the press conference. In response, Alonso explained: "We all feel closely connected as one with the Bayer AG. Everyone in the company gives us tremendous support. Then there are our great fans. We in the club are working to give everyone in the city and in the company even more joy at the end of the season. We can take another important step towards that against West Ham tomorrow."

Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 4-0 win at SGS Essen on the 24th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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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.
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After matchday 31 and the 2-1 derby win in Cologne, one thing is certain: Bayer 04 will at least compete in the UEFA Europa League in the coming 2026/27 campaign. But the Werkself want more. Looking at the race for Champions League qualification and the remaining three league fixtures, including against direct rivals, bayer04.de outlines the possible scenarios in the season run-in.
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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.
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