Ten Werkself players are currently away on international duty – and coach Heiko Herrlich had to manage without Lars and Sven Bender plus stalwart Stefan Kießling, who is still recovering from a cold. Lucas Alario did play as the suspension for the Argentinian following his red card in the derby against FC Köln did not apply to this friendly. Goalkeeper Niklas Lomb shared the bench with four U19 players Max Schneider, Marius Samoura, Hajdar Shala and Chinedu Ekene. Two of the youngsters were in the starting eleven: Tim Stappmann in the back three and Herdi Bukusu in midfield. Bochum, under former Bayer 04 coach Robin Dutt, did not start with Sidney Sam and Robbie Kruse did not play as he is away with Australia on international duty.
The second division side, who endeavoured to compete, had the first chance at Kurtekotten with keeper Rambo Özcan forced into action after just four minutes. In contrast, Bayer 04 made full use of their first opportunity at the other end: Bukusu put Kevin Volland through and the Germany international, who became a father for the first time at the weekend and therefore missed the game in Cologne, tucked away a low shot with his right foot to give the Werkself the lead on 11 minutes. Shortly after that, Karim Bellarabi missed a good chance to double the lead. Bukusu was quick to make amends: The youngster made it 2-0 with a great volley after a Bochum player had blocked the first effort from Alario on 15 minutes. And the encounter continued to prove entertaining for the crowd: Johannes Wurtz benefited from confusion in the Bayer 04 defence and he left Özcan with no chance as his diagonal shot from the right found the far corner of the net to make it 2-1 and 21 minutes.
The game continued in the same fashion: A header from Simon Lorenz went just wide of the Leverkusen goal on 25 minutes, Leon Bailey fired a right-foot shot against the Bochum woodwork on the half-hour mark. Volland then set up Alario to restore the two-goal lead on 33 minutes. The Werkself kept up the pressure as they sought to exploit their advantage: Volland headed home a pinpoint cross from the right by Bailey and Bayer 04 with then 4-1 in the lead on 39 minutes – and that was the half-time score in a lively encounter.
After the break – now with Niklas Lomb in goal – Bayer 04 took a considerably more relaxed approach to proceedings. Heiko Herrlich brought on Hajdar Shala and Chinedu Ekene for Wendell and Bukusu on 63 minutes. Alario matched Volland as he netted his second goal: The central striker – picked out well by Bellarabi – curled the ball into the far corner to put Bayer 04 5-1 up on 70 minutes. Lomb was able to shine on 76 minutes as he kept out an effort from Hinterseer with a fine flying save. Marius Samoura replaced Volland two minutes later and Max Schneider came on for Bailey om 81 minutes. Kevin Stöger rounded off the scoring with a goal from a free kick for VfL with the match ending 5-2 in favour of Leverkusen.
Line-up in friendly:
Özcan (Lomb 46') – Stappmann, Frey, Wendell (Shala 63') – Yurchenko, Kohr – Bellarabi, Bukusu (Ekene 63'), Bailey (Schneider 81') – Volland (Samoura 79'), Alario
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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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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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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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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