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In response to the question of to what extent Xabi Alonso is aware of the explosive nature of the derby against Köln, the Spanish coach answered without hesitating: "I knew the significance of this match for the team, the club and the fans from the first day."
The 40-year-old, for whom this will be the first clash with FC Köln as head coach at Bayer 04, highlighted the positive that many of his players have plenty of derby experience: "We are expecting an opponent with lots of energy and good support from the fans. It's something special and we need emotional stability for this game."
A win at the Rheinenergie Stadium would see the Werkself build on the 5-0 victory over Union Berlin. "Winning against Union is no good to us if we don't follow up that performance in Cologne," said Alonso. "We were well organised defensively in the second half. We have to build on that and that will lead automatically to a better attacking game."
The Werkself continue to be without the services of Sardar Azmoun and Florian Wirtz, with Alonso saying it is "still too early" for his return. There are question marks over recent absentees Charles Aránguiz (calf) and Patrik Schick (groin).
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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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