
Gerardo Seoane on…
…the first days in Zell am See-Kaprun: We had a relaxed journey here and are happy with everything to date. As with every year, we have great conditions here – the pitch is brilliant, the hotel is great. The crucial thing at a training camp above all is for us to have all the players together for a longer period of time. Then we have enough time to work with the individual players and also able to have lots of discussions as a team and individually.
…the timing of the training camp: As we wanted to have all the players on board at the training camp, we consciously decided to travel later this time. Last year a lot of players were still at the European Championships at the time of the training camp. Now we are all here and are already a step further on. That means we are able to be more targeted in our work this week. We want to put the content of the previous sessions into practice in the friendly against Panathinaikos and then the training content from the other days in the game against Udinese.

…the state of play with the Werkself: We've more or less had this set-up for over a year and that's an important point. At the start of last season, we faced one or two challenges above all due to the signing of a lot of young players in defence. They have all developed extremely well since then. Therefore, I believe we are much more solid.

It was another incredibly close call in the end: The second showdown in the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship saw the #B04eSports team once again narrowly miss out on a place in the top 16 of the preliminary round – and with it, a spot in the in-person knockout stage. It was a bitter blow: Marc and Sean Landwehr again fell just short, despite being level on points with their rivals. As was the case last month, their weaker record across the twelve individual matches in the six preliminary round fixtures proved decisive.
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“They stuck with us over the past few weeks when things weren’t going so well,” said captain Edmond Tapsoba, thanking the fans for their support after the 2–1 win in Cologne and dedicating the derby victory to them. Throughout the 90 minutes, the Werkself had looked unfazed and in command, inflicting the first home defeat of the season on FC Köln. It was the sixth consecutive win against the Cologne team for Bayer 04 – head coach Carles Martínez, on the other hand, was facing the team from the neighbouring city for the first time and “now really knows what this derby win means”. The Werkself derby review.
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Following the 2–1 derby victory away at FC Köln on Bundesliga matchday 9, Edmond Tapsoba, Malik Tillman and Aleix Garcia spoke to Werkself TV...
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-1 derby win at 1. FC Köln Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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