Player number 25 arrived on time at 08.30 at the Hotel Tauern Spa in Kaprun; European Championship participant Julian Baumgartlinger joined the team for the first time in the pre-season. The stalwart had a short journey to the team hotel as he spent his time off in his home country of Austria.
Baumgartlinger and his teammates were originally due to have their training session on Sunday on the pitch at the Alois Latini Stadium. However, the training session could not be held as planned as the pitches were underwater due to the heavy rainfall of the past few days.
So head coach Gerardo Seoane and his coaching staff held a session in the morning that was divided into three consisting of weight training in the hotel fitness centre, athletics training in the players area of the accommodation plus a running session.
While the outfield players remained in the hotel, the four Werkself keepers and goalkeeping coach David Thiel made the ten-minute journey to the training ground in Zell am See on Sunday. For Lukas Hradecky, new signing Andrey Lunev, Lennart Grill and Niklas Lomb there was a tactical session. Thiel: "Today we did training on defending space. At the centre of the drills were diagonal balls and low crosses where the lads had to find the right positions."
The quartet used a penalty area on the neighbouring pitch, "which, thank God, was relatively free of water," added Thiel. "It was important for us to complete this tactical session today on the pitch." Following the 45 minutes on the pitch, the focus of the goalkeepers on the last day of the week was recovery.
After lunch, sporting director Simon Rolfes met journalists who are with the Werkself for this year's training camp in the lobby of the hotel. The 39-year-old provided answers for over 45 minutes on personnel, the rest of the programme in Salzburger Land as well as the targets for the new season.
The discussions were not completely straightforward as the meeting of the media saw Rudi Völler burst in after 20 minutes. The sporting managing director at Bayer 04 gave a warm welcome to the journalists – and, as usual, he had a few quips ready. In reference to the sports kit worn by Rolfes, Völler said with a wink of the eye: "The way we look we could still play. Isn't that right, Simon?" The key statements from the Bayer 04 sporting director will be posted on the bayer04.de website on Monday morning.
Are you curious about what a day looks like for the Werkself players at the training camp? Then have a look at the story on our Bayer 04 Instagram channel. New signing Mitchel Bakker and Daley Sinkgraven provide exclusive insights of their Sunday. The Dutch duo reported on breakfast and session in the weights room. HERE is the Werkself channel.
At the same time, youngster Emrehan Gedikli takes you on a tour of the hotel on Snapchat. The 18-year-old starts the tour in his hotel room. That is followed by the kit room, the players’ lounge, the dining room – and a visit to the accommodation of Florian Wirtz. HERE is the Bayer 04 Snapchat channel.
René Rydlewicz also experienced one or two training camps in his time under the Bayer Cross (1991-94 and 1996-01/1998). The DFB Cup final winner of 1993 is now assistant coach of the Germany U18 team – and today (Sunday) he celebrates his 48th birthday. Bayer 04 wish him many happy returns.
Bayer 04 are away to Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb on Matchday 5 of the league phase of the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League. The game kicks off on Thursday 26 November at 18:45 CET at the Maksimir Stadium. All the information on ticket sales.
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It wasn’t just on the pitch that there was cause for celebration around the Werkself’s 2–1 home win against SC Freiburg. Plenty of happy faces could be seen near the dugouts at half-time too. Once again, CEO Fernando Carro, alongside former striker and club ambassador Stefan Kießling, paid tribute to eight supporters’ clubs celebrating up to their 30th anniversary on behalf of Bayer 04.
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He’s done it: Patrik Schick also found the back of the net in Bayer 04’s 2–1 win over SC Freiburg on Matchday six of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season – a club record! In what was a high-quality match from the word go, the Werkself were briefly rattled by the visitors’ opener from Derry Scherhant in the 14th minute but fought back with an equaliser from Ibrahim Maza just six minutes later. In the second half, the Black and Reds took control on their home turf and secured a well-earned win through record-holder Schick. In doing do, the Werkself inflicted the first defeat of the season on the club from the Black Forest.
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It was a match that will live long in the memory of everyone involved: The Bayer 04 U19s celebrated their seventh win in seven matches in the DFB Youth League preliminary round – and yet it was a very special victory indeed: in the 4–3 (1–1) win at VfL Bochum 1848, no fewer than five goals came in the final quarter of an hour. As the 90th minute approached, coach Patrick Greveraars’s side found themselves behind, but then fought back in true ‘Laterkusen’ style.
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Under Carles Martínez, the Werkself have so far proved unbeatable at the BayArena. The Spaniard has led his team to victory in all three of their most recent home matches – and, it's worth noting, without conceding a single goal. On Sunday, 18 October (kick-off: 15:30 CEST / live on DAZN and Werkself Radio), current league leaders SC Freiburg will make the trip to Leverkusen, but will be without their top scorer. What's more, the Werkself have won all three of their previous home matches against the Black Forest club. With a goal, Patrik Schick could not only secure a fourth consecutive victory but also set a memorable record. Meanwhile, on what will be the ‘Health Day' at the BayArena, much of the focus will be on physical wellbeing. Today's matchday news.
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