Compared with the win in the friendly away to top-flight Dutch side Fortuna Sittard (2-1), head coach Erik ten Hag made three changes to his starting line-up: Piero Hincapie, making his first start since returning from injury, Arthur and Christian Kofane, with his first appearance from the start, replaced Jarell Quansah, Amine Adli and Patrik Schick, who yesterday signed a contract extension to 2030 .
As in the previous two friendlies, the Werkself dominated possession and territory from the kick-off. The first goal of the season at the BayArena came just four minutes later. Robert Andrich, again wearing the captain's armband, hit a powerful volley into the back of the net to make it 1-0 from a free kick taken by Alejandro Grimaldo. The next chance fell to the provider Grimaldo after ten minutes but the skilful Spaniard only hit the bar. The second goal of the game came from new signing Kofane with his first start and also his first goal in a Bayer 04 jersey (18'). The 19-year-old striker was perfectly put through by Grimaldo and he cleverly put the ball past the advancing Pisa keeper to double the lead at 2-0.
The pace of the game eased off for a short while until Ibrahim Maza hit a long-range effort just before the half-hour mark that was deflected just wide of the target. Shortly after that Arthur went off due to a knock and he was replaced by Adli (31'). Andrich hit the woodwork again (40') before the ball was in the Italian net for a third time just before the end of the first half: The impressive Exequiel Palacios scored with an excellent volley from the edge of the box to make it 3-0 (45').
Bayer 04 started the second half with Schick, Quansah and Jonas Hofmann on the pitch and the Werkself were then reduced to ten men after a red card shown to Edmond Tapsoba for a foul preventing a goalscoring opportunity. The visitors from Tuscany were then more adventurous than before half-time and Mark Flekken had to make a save from the German player Idrissa Touré on 57 minutes. Substitutions were made by Bayer 04 with Aleix Garcia making his first appearance in 2025/26. The closing stages were uneventful and the Werkself succeeded in keeping a clean sheet with ten men also due to an impressive reflex save by Flekken (87').
The final pre-season friendly sees Bayer 04 travel to England: The Bundesliga runners-up are away to the Club World Cup winners Chelsea in London on Friday, 8 August (kick-off: 20:00 CEST). The match at Stamford Bridge will be broadcast live on Werkself TV.
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Flekken - Tape (Traore 77'), Tapsoba, Hincapie (Quansah 46') - Arthur (Adli 31', Culbreath 88'), Palacios (Mensah 65'), Andrich, Grimaldo (Hawighorst 81') - Maza (Hofmann 46'), Tella (Garcia 65') - Kofane (Schick 46')
Pisa: Semper - Canestrelli (Piccinini 76'), Caracciolo (Durmush 76'), Lusuardi (Mbambi 87') - Touré, Marin (Aebischer 59'), Akinsanmiro (Calabresi 76'), Angori - Lind (Moreo 46'), Tramoni (Hojholt 76') - Meister
Goals: 1-0 Andrich (4’), 2-0 Kofane (19’), 3-0 Palacios (45’)
Yellow cards: Angori
Red cards: Edmond Tapsoba (professional foul)
Referee: Sascha Stegemann (Niederkassel)
Attendance: 22,498 at the BayArena
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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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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