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Xhaka called London home for seven years during his time at Arsenal and said he had a “great time here”. Now the Switzerland international returns for the first time with Bayer 04 and is preparing for an encounter at the London Stadium, where the 31-year-old experienced a number of exciting match-ups. “There are regularly over 60,000 people in the stadium. Same again tomorrow. And they definitely won’t be there for us. But we come here with great confidence from the first leg and want to progress. That’s clear,” he said.
When asked, the midfielder didn’t want the weekend’s title celebrations to be an excuse for Thursday. “Obviously we celebrated a little, but within reason. We have a big task ahead of us again tomorrow. We want to reach the semi-finals. We’re very hungry.”
Coach Alonso is expecting a “hard game. West Ham showed Freiburg that they can overcome a first-leg defeat.” The Hammers had lost 1-0 in Germany in their round of 16 tie but then progressed thanks to a 5-0 win back at home. “We’ll play our game and definitely won’t just defend. That’s not our way,” he added.
The Spaniard firmly believes that the Werkself will again perform well in this second leg: “The players give me no doubt about believing in them. Their concentration, focus and hunger are special.”
The Werkself can count on the support of over 3,000 travelling fans from Leverkusen for a sold-out away section at the London Stadium.
One person who isn’t in the UK capital is Borja Iglesias. “He’s got muscular problems. We need to wait and see how things are with him in the coming days. It could well be that he also misses Dortmund. We need to see with him and Adam Hlozek whether they’ll be ready for the Stuttgart game,” explained Alonso, who otherwise has a full squad at his disposal. And they are all ready, as the coach explained, since “we want to take our big chance in the Europa League as well.”
Two games – two wins: Bayer 04 have picked up maximum points from their two matches so far in the league phase of the UEFA Europa League. What's more, of their previous 14 UEL matches, Bayer 04 have lost just one. Away to OFI Crete, Carles Martínez’s side are looking to add another successful performance on the European stage to their string of impressive displays. The Greeks, for their part, have been waiting four matches for a win, but Leverkusen should be on their guard: OFI’s most recent victory came against a German side. Today's matchday news.
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Ahead of Bayer 04's Europa League match away to OFI Crete in Greece, defender Jarell Quansah spoke to Werkself-TV...
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Brimming with confidence after five consecutive competitive wins, Bayer 04 face OFI Crete on Thursday evening, 22 October (kick-off: 19:45 local time, 18:45 CEST). Ahead of the UEFA Europa League clash on Greece’s largest island, head coach Carles Martínez spoke about the opposition and the late inclusion of Jonas Hofmann, whilst defender Jarell Quansah discussed the reasons behind the Werkself’s winning run.
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It couldn't have been any tighter! Despite winning four of six games in the online preliminary round in Showdown 1 of the VBL Club Championship 2026/27, Leverkusen eSports duo Marc and Sean Landwehr didn't make it through to the offline knockout round. Level on points (12) with seven other teams, Leverkusen were the only team with this points tally not to progress as they had the worst single-game record compared to their rivals.
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He's one of the leading figures of Leverkusen and the German economy: Werner Wenning rose from an apprentice at Bayer 04 to CEO of the global company. A childhood Werkself fan, he has held a position of responsibility at the club for many years as chairman of the shareholder committee of Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH. Today the Leverkusen native celebrates his 80th birthday. The entire Bayer 04 family offers its warmest wishes!
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