04 days after the friendly at Wuppertaler SV (24 July), Bayer 04 are away to Fortuna Sittard who secured their return to the Dutch first division (Eredivisie) at the end of April. The club from near the border with Germany, finished last season as runners-up to the Ajax Amsterdam reserves (not entitled to be promoted) – a position that few would have predicted given their previous finishes (19, 16 and 17). On top of that, the club parted company during the campaign with their coach following disagreements with the former Nigeria international Sundaj Oliseh (43, also at Borussia Dortmund). However, under Portuguese interim coach Cláudio Braga (43),Fortuna Sittard remained on track to return to the top flight in Holland after a break of 16 years with a young team with an average age of 22.6 years.
Dutchman René Eijer (55) takes over as coach for the new campaign. The former Vitesse Arnhem player will have to manage without key player and captain Perr Schuurs. 30 June sees the end of loan deal of the 18-year-old Sittard homegrown player from league rivals Ajax Amsterdam. The club, founded in 1968, have produced a host of famous players with Huub Stevens (1970 to 1975), former Bayer 04 player Erik Meijer (1988 to 1989) and Mark van Bommel (1992 to 1999) starting their professional careers at Sittard.
The club play their home games at the Fortuna Sittard Stadium (capacity 12,500). The match against Bayer 04 is on 28 July at 18.00 CET.
After the friendly in Sittard, the Werkself pre-season includes games at SV Rosbach/Verscheid (18 July), Oberliga side Sportfreunde Siegen (21 July), Regional League Wuppertaler SV (24 July) and Spanish top-flight club Valencia (11 August).
Despite the international break, numerous Werkself fans turned up at the BayArena on Saturday 3 October. The occasion: Bayer 04, together with Bayer Vital and main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer, organised a Health Day. In the stadium’s Premium Lounge, guests listened to fascinating talks on the subject of cancer, featuring, amongst others, Bayer 04 record appearance holder Rüdiger Vollborn and former Werkself player Hans Sarpei. Afterwards, young and old alike enjoyed interactive stations such as a grip strength test and eye pupil test.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 3-2 win against Werder Bremen on Matchday 6 of the 2026/27 Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga.
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Thanks to a thrilling second-half comeback, the Bayer 04 women’s team secured their first home win this term. Against Werder Bremen, the Werkself stepped up their game significantly after the break and turned a two-goal deficit into a 3–2 win. Cornelia Kramer (54’, 56’) and Lobke Loonen (81’) scored the goals that earned coach Roberto Pätzold’s team their first points at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium in the current Bundesliga season.
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A commanding performance: In a friendly during the international break, Bayer 04 defeated third-division newcomers SC Fortuna Köln 6–0. Martin Terrier and Patrik Schick scored twice each with Nathan Tella and Miguel Gutiérrez netting the other goals for Leverkusen. Due to preparations at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium for tonight’s Bayer 04 women’s Bundesliga home game against Werder Bremen (kick-off: 18:30 CEST), the fixture against the Cologne side was played at the Werkself training ground.
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