At 5.30 in the morning, the three groundsmen at FC Zell am See started work on clearing water off the pitch at the Alois Latini Stadium. Equipped with shovels and wheelbarrows plus sand, the trio worked hard to ensure the Werkself had the best possible conditions for the two sessions planned for Monday.
Just in time for the first training session in the morning, not only was the pitch mostly in good condition but the cloud cover over Lake Zeller had also disappeared. Head coach Gerardo Seoane welcomed Karim Bellarabi back to the pitch for the first time since Friday. The winger has recently suffered with slight muscle problems.
Euro 2020 player Julian Baumgartlinger was back on the pitch with his teammates for the first time in the pre-season. After the Round of 16 exit against European champions Italy (2-1 a.e.t..) was given the opportunity to recover with a break – and he has returned now full of zest for action. The stalwart lead from the front in his first session in Zell am See.
Baumgartlinger plus Lucas Alario and Zidan Sertdemir completed most of the training session with the squad but the trio left out the final pat of the workout.
The morning session was followed by media interviews for seven players plus head coach Seoane and sporting director Simon Rolfes. In the outside area of the Tauern Spa, Lukas Hradecky and Co. answered questions from the journalists. Jonathan Tah was a guest of bayer04.de and his interview will be available to read tomorrow morning (Tuesday).
Goalkeeper Andrey Lunev, who joined the Werkself in the summer from Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg, spent his afternoon learning German. The 29-year-old was working on the days of the week in his hotel room. Following his language session, the Russian mastered ‘Black or Red’.
The afternoon brought the second workout for the Werkself at the Alois Latini Stadium. This time the focus was on fun – and there was fervent work with the head:
The team, coaches, staff and delegation rounded off day 04 in Austria with a barbecue at the team hotel before the players then headed for their rooms.
For the third time in a row, the Leverkusen eSports players have made it through to the final round of the VBL Club Championship. From 7 to 8 March, they will compete for the German Club Championship at XPERION in Hamburg. At the start of the final round, they face Hamburger SV in the Round of 16. The match starts at 19:30 CET on Saturday, 7 March and will be broadcast live on the VBL Twitch channel. The eSports preview.
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"We played with pace and patience today. That was the decisive factor," said managing director sport Simon Rolfes following the 1-0 win at Hamburger SV in the rearranged match on Wednesday night. Although the Werkself still had room for improvement in terms of capitalising on their chances against the Red Shorts, they produced a different display to last time out and were rewarded for a concentrated performance over 90 minutes. The Werkself review features reaction to the game, including from a happy starting XI debutant, as well as the match stats.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 1-0 win in rearranged match at Hamburger SV on Matchday 17 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...
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The second attempt was a successful one: the Werkself won 1-0 at Hamburger SV in the rearranged Bundesliga Matchday 17 encounter. Head coach Kasper Hjulmand's side dominated play from the start and eventually scored the winning goal through Christian Kofane in the 73rd minute.
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