FC Porto are currently on an eleven-day training camp at the Kamen-Kaiserau Sports Centre near Dortmund. Their squad includes internationally famous players like Iker Casillas, Hector Herrera and Ruben Neves. FC Porto have regularly played European football for years. They lifted the European Cup in 1987 and the Champions League in 2004 plus the UEFA Cup and the Europa League (2003, 2011). Porto have won the Portuguese league 31 times and 16 domestic cup competitions.
The team us managed by Nuno Santo. The young Portuguese coach is successor to Julen Lopetegui who is moving to manage the Spanish national team. Under Lopetegui FC Porto finished third in the league behind Benfica and Sporting Lisbon last term putting them in the play-offs for the Champions League.
Bayer 04 are familiar with that scenario from the previous two Champions League campaigns. This year is a different story with pre-season building up to competitive matches in the DFB Cup and then the Bundesliga. This fifth friendly may give fans the opportunity to see Tin Jedvaj, Admir Mehmedi and Charles Aránguiz plus U19 European Championship players Lukas Boeder and Benny Henrichs in action. All five returned to training this week.
Advice to fans
Hosts SV Bergisch Gladbach 09 have announced that nationwide stadium bans apply to Wednesday night's match against FC Porto at the Belkaw Arena.
The German Football Association (DFB) has given Bayer 04 the Pitch of the Year award in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga for the 2024/25 season and thereby for the sixth time in succession. The Ulrich Haberland Stadium was once again named the best pitch in the Women's Bundesliga last season.
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To all Bayer 04 fans: The Fanwelt will be closed all day next Monday 30 June. This is due to preparations for the change of kit supplier from Castore to New Balance on Tuesday 1 July.
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The Bayer 04 Women have returned to the training ground. Werkself TV followed the first training session of the preseason at the Kurtekotten Performance Centre.
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The Bayer 04 Women's squad have started preparing for the new season six weeks after their last Bundesliga match. In warm sunny weather, coach Roberto Pätzold welcomed 23 players back to the training ground at the Kurtekotten Performance Centre for the first training session – including two of the four new players.
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