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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.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen and sponsors club partner NRG24 are continuing their partnership, which has been in place since the summer of 2023. The Bundesliga football club and the energy consultancy firm have extended their successful partnership until 30 June 2027.
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Bayer 04 host VfB Stuttgart at the BayArena on matchday 8 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season. The game will be played on Halloween on Saturday, 31 October with the a 15:30 CET kick-off. The latest information on ticket sales.
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Bayer 04 host SC Paderborn at the BayArena on matchday 10 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season. The game against the newly promoted team is on Saturday, 21 November with the a 15:30 CET kick-off. The latest information on ticket sales.
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“School education: a key to success in a sporting career?” – this and other questions relating to dual training in sport, particularly in football, took centre stage at the EDU-DC Conference at the BayArena. The event, held in the Premium Lounge, brought together experts from top clubs and associations from 24 nations, including England, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. Representatives from Bayer 04 and TSV Bayer 04 provided insights into the interplay between school and sport at the Werkself.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 2-0 win at Viktoria Berlin in the first round of the women's DFB-Pokal 2026/27
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