Around 700 fans attended the Werkself open training session at the start of the second week of the Easter holidays. While the players who started in the 1-1 draw at FC St. Pauli completed a reduced set of drills and were able to dedicate themselves earlier than the other players to meeting the wishes of the fans for autographs and photos, head coach Xabi Alonso continued leading the training session including practising moves in restricted spaces. Afterwards, Robert Andrich, Victor Boniface and Co. signed shirts and posters for the supporters.
Amine Adli fielded questions from the media following the training session. The 24-year-old declared: "Of course, we are not at all happy with the result and the way we played against St. Pauli, that's absolutely clear. Unfortunately there can be weaker phases like that over the course of the season from time to time." And he added: "We know how good we can be and we want to end the season as well as we can. We will work hard on that and give our all!"
The striker also shared his views on his own position: "I continue to feel very happy and I always give everything for the club, my teammates and our fans."
After the interviews, the 15-time Morocco international Adli congratulated his fellow countryman Nassim El Massoudi, from the Bayer 04 U17 squad, on winning the U17 Africa Cup of Nations: "I followed the games with excitement and was really happy about the win. I'm very proud of Nassim and his teammates and they have made a whole country proud! I hope we see each other again soon here at the BayArena and I wish him all the best for his future!" The Morocco youth team beat Mali on penalties in the final a few days ago.
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The remaining training sessions before the home game against FC Augsburg on Saturday, 20 April (kick-off: 15:30 CEST) will be held behind closed doors. The training session on Sunday at 11:00 CEST is open to fans (subject to change without prior notice).
It was another incredibly close call in the end: The second showdown in the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship saw the #B04eSports team once again narrowly miss out on a place in the top 16 of the preliminary round – and with it, a spot in the in-person knockout stage. It was a bitter blow: Marc and Sean Landwehr again fell just short, despite being level on points with their rivals. As was the case last month, their weaker record across the twelve individual matches in the six preliminary round fixtures proved decisive.
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“They stuck with us over the past few weeks when things weren’t going so well,” said captain Edmond Tapsoba, thanking the fans for their support after the 2–1 win in Cologne and dedicating the derby victory to them. Throughout the 90 minutes, the Werkself had looked unfazed and in command, inflicting the first home defeat of the season on FC Köln. It was the sixth consecutive win against the Cologne team for Bayer 04 – head coach Carles Martínez, on the other hand, was facing the team from the neighbouring city for the first time and “now really knows what this derby win means”. The Werkself derby review.
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Following the 2–1 derby victory away at FC Köln on Bundesliga matchday 9, Edmond Tapsoba, Malik Tillman and Aleix Garcia spoke to Werkself TV...
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-1 derby win at 1. FC Köln Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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