The DFB have appointed Florian Badstünber to oversee this last match of the year. The 31-year-old has taken charge of two previous Leverkusen fixtures, with a win and loss each. His assistants are Markus Schüller and Christian Leicher. Johann Pfeifer is the VAR.
The Werkself can look forward to another sell-out crowd of 30,210 at the BayArena this afternoon. It’s the sixth time this season the stadium has been at capacity. Xabi Alonso and his team have recorded wins over Schalke and Union Berlin, as well as progressing to the UEFA Europa League, in front of a full house. Bayer 04 will want another positive result to send the fans into the World Cup and the new year happy.
As part of today's Bundesliga match with Stuttgart, the club is calling for donations of food for the Leverkusener Tafel e.V.. For more than 20 years, the non-profit association has been supporting the now more than 5,000 needy citizens of Leverkusen by distributing food. Also due to the increased food costs, the demand is enormously high in these times, so we ask our Bayer 04 fans to participate in the campaign at today's home match against Stuttgart. Food can be dropped off in front of the stadium entrances of blocks B1 and B2 (east side of the BayArena). The fan support team will be there to accept the donations. The Tafel Leverkusen has also drawn up a ‘wish list’ of particularly urgently needed foodstuffs for this purpose. You can read more about this HERE.
Bayer 04 welcome their favourite opponent this matchday. There’s no team Leverkusen have beaten as often in the Bundesliga as Stuttgart (39). The Werkself have lost only one of the last 20 top-flight encounters. That 1-0 defeat in April 2018 was also the only time in their last eight trips to Leverkusen that VfB have claimed a point. The remaining seven results since 2013 have all been Werkself wins. Stuttgart are also on a 16-game winless run away from home in the Bundesliga (D8, L8) and have won just one of 23 away fixtures since the start of last season (D11, L11) – that was a 2-0 victory at Wolfsburg back in December 2021.
VfB had a poor start to the season, failing to win any of their opening nine games, sitting 17th with just five points. It saw coach Pellegrino Matarazzo dismissed and replaced on an interim basis by Michael Wimmer. Things have improved under the 42-year-old, who has won four of his six competitive fixtures at the helm. It’s the same amount his predecessor managed in his final 29 matches. However, all four of Wimmer’s wins have come at home, with both away games ending in defeat at Dortmund (5-0) and Gladbach (3-1). It’s a problem that has plagued the club all year, having failed to win on the road at all in 2022.
The visitors also come to the BayArena without injured captain Wataru Endo and the suspended Konstantinos Mavropanos. Read more about our opponents HERE.
The Stuttgart game can be followed as ever on Werkself Radio. The audio broadcast starts 30 minutes before kick-off with commentators Cedric Pick and Niko Hartmann reporting live from the BayArena. In addition, the live text service will provide updates so there is no need to miss any the action. Both Werkself Radio and the live text updates can be found at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app.
Due to the suspended S-Bahn around Leverkusen-Mitte station, there will still be challenges getting to and from the stadium. Further information will be published and constantly updated on the websites of Deutsche Bahn and wupsi.
This fan meeting got off to a rather unexpected start. On Sunday afternoon, the Bayer 04 managing directors had just welcomed the fans present at the team hotel for the traditional get-together at the training camp when Fernando Carro’s phone rang. The CEO, glancing towards managing director sport Simon Rolfes with a smile, said: “We’ll just have to answer that quickly.” When asked by the fans what the call was actually about, the pair left it open with a wink. Instead, Carro and Rolfes then spent over an hour happily answering the fans’ many other questions.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have agreed Kerim Alajbegovic’s transfer to Italian record champions Juventus. The club brought the 18-year-old attacking player back to Leverkusen this summer via a buy-back option, following a season at Red Bull Salzburg. Until his move to Austria, the Bosnia international had been playing for Bayer 04’s Under-19s.
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A warm welcome to the Weimarer Land, Bayer 04! The Werkself moved into their accommodation for this year’s training camp on Saturday evening. In Blankenhain, Thuringia, head coach Carles Martínez’s team have a programme of gruelling training sessions – several of which will be open to fans – and team-building activities lined up for the next six days. We’ll be following the Werkself up close and providing you with exclusive insights, quotes, photos and videos from the training camp.
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With 22 days to go until the start of the Bundesliga campaign, the Bayer 04 Women’s team have gained a fresh boost of confidence. In a friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk on Saturday afternoon, coach Roberto Pätzold’s team secured a 1–0 win. Lobke Loonen (20’) scored the winner for the Black and Reds at the Kurtekotten training centre.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of the 3-0 victory in the friendly match against Rot-Weiss Essen...
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