As in the double matchday on the last weekend of the training camp in Zell am See-Kaprun, with the games against Watford and SD Eibar, Peter Bosz will again divide his squad into two teams with both line-ups playing the full 90 minutes. "We are already further ahead than we were at the training camp and you could see that in today's training session. It was no walk in the park – it was really hard work. But that's what the pre-season has to be about," said the head coach. "On Sunday, we have to make sure we avoid the mistakes we made in the previous friendlies. We want to be better and work on our game."
Anybody wanting to get a double helping of the Werkself on Sunday can purchase tickets for the matchday for three euros at the Bayer 04 shop in Wiesdorf (Wiesdorfer Platz 9, 51373 Leverkusen) or at the Fan House (Breidenbachstraße 46, 51373 Leverkusen). Proceeds from the ticket sales will be donated to the Leverkusen Fan Project.
Our opponents:
Heracles Almelo:
Almelo finished seventh in the Eredivisie last season. The club top scorer was the Spanish striker Adrian Dalmau with 19 goals. The team is managed by Frank Wormuth, who previously worked for the DFB as the Germany U20 coach and also as head of coach training. Bayer 04 coach Peter Bosz was twice in charge at Heracles, from 2004 to 2006 plus 2010 to 2013. Almelo reached the third qualifying round of the Europa League in 2016 but were knocked out after two draws with FC Arouca (1-1 and 0-0).
Vitesse Arnhem:
Peter Bosz also coached Vitesse from 2013 to January 2016 before moving on to Israel to take the helm at Maccabi Tel Aviv. Arnhem were fifth in the Eredivisie last season but missed out on qualification for the Europa League in the play-offs with a 2-0 defeat against Utrecht. The top scorer in the league last term was Bryan Linssen with twelve goals and the Norwegian Martin Ödegaard, on loan from Real Madrid, found the back of the net eight times. In 2017, Vitesse won the Dutch domestic cup competition with a 2-0 victory in the final against AZ Alkmaar. The current Arnhem coach is Leonid Sluzki, who previously was the Russia coach at Euro 2016. Bayer 04 beat Vitesse 4-0 in a friendly during the pre-season in 2013.
The German Football Association (DFB) confirmed the kick-off times for the second round of the 2026/27 DFB Pokal on Thursday. Bayer 04 will meet 1. FC Nürnberg on Wednesday 28 October at 20:45 CET.
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Just in time for the start of the school year, everyone was hard at work again at NaturGut Ophoven. For the 21st time, Bayer 04 have supported the annual ‘BioBrotbox’ campaign, which puts together a healthy breakfast for first-year primary school pupils in Leverkusen – and not only contributed 1,904 muesli bars but also plenty of enthusiasm too: Together with the U19 players Burak Kir and Clinton Wilson, Emily Wallrabenstein and Paulina Platner from the Women’s Bundesliga team helped with the packing. The latter was clearly delighted “that Bayer 04 are helping out with regional projects like this and showing their commitment to the local community”.
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A group of about 50 members of the Bayer 04 Football Academy São Paulo visited Leverkusen over the past few days, accompanied by Bayer 04 club legend Paulo Sergio and Luiz Felipe (managing director of academy in São Paulo) for a week full of football, encounters and very special insights. In addition to the Bundesliga away game in Elversberg and the home game against Union Berlin, the visit also featured a joint training session with the Bayer 04 Football Academy in Leverkusen and a tour of the Bayer AG facilities. The guests also gained special insights into the club and the world of Bayer 04.
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