VfL Bochum are the first opponents following the return from the ten day training camp in Rio de Janeiro that includes a friendly. The match against the team relegated from the Bundesliga, which is the season opener for the hosts, is on Sunday, 27 July at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion with the kick-off at 18:00 CEST.
The Werkself are next in action five days later away to the top-flight Dutch club Fortuna Sittard on Friday, 1 August (19:00 CEST).
Tickets for the two games in Bochum and Sittard will probably go on sale from the first week in July. Further ticket information to follow.
The season opener at the BayArena is on Tuesday, 5 August. There will be a friendly in the early evening with information on the opponents and the kick-off time to follow. Tickets go on sale to Bayer 04 Club members from Tuesday, 8 July.
The Werkself play Chelsea in London in the final pre-season friendly ahead of the 2025/26 campaign. The match against the fourth-placed team in the Premier League and Club World Cup participants is on Friday, 8 August with the kick-off at 20:00 CEST (19:00 local time) at Stamford Bridge.
"That friendly at a top European level will be the sporting highlight of the pre-season. Our new Werkself team will play a top opponent in Chelsea a week before the start of the DFB Pokal and Stamford Bridge is a highly attractive venue for our fans. We are looking forward to a real big match in London," said Simon Rolfes, managing director sport at Bayer 04.
Tickets for the away game in England will probably go on sale after the first week of July. Further ticket information to follow.
The first round of the DFB Pokal is a week later on the weekend of 15 to 18 August with the Werkself away to SG Sonnenhof Großaspach. The 2025/26 Bundesliga season starts the following weekend and the fixture list will be published on Friday 27 June.
Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 0-1 loss at Bayern Munich in the round of 16 of the women's DFB-Pokal 2026/27
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career working as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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Having previously recorded six consecutive home wins across all competitions, Bayer 04 suffered their first home defeat of 2026/27 as they went down 4-2 to VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Matchday 8. The visitors capitalised on their first two chances to score, with Ermedin Demirovic and Jamie Leweling finding the net in the first half. Although Patrik Schick got a goal back in the first half, Bilal El Khannouss and Demirovic again added further goals for Stuttgart. Bayer 04 didn’t give up, but Ibrahim Maza’s goal proved little more than a consolation.
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Fans at the BayArena got to enjoy a spectacle on Wednesday as the Werkself came from behind to beat Nürnberg 5-2 in the DFB Pokal. Now with the sixth home game of the season, can Bayer 04 maintain their perfect record in Leverkusen as VfB Stuttgart come to town in the Bundesliga on Saturday (15:30 CET)? The visitors have had issues domestically this term, sitting in 15th place, although they have had much better results in the UEFA Champions League. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the Matchday 8 encounter…
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The Bayern Munich women’s football team are unbeaten in all domestic competitions in the last 62 matches. On Sunday (15:00 CET), the Bayer 04 women’s team will make their next attempt to end the holders unbeaten run in the DFB Pokal Round of 16 tie. For coach Roberto Pätzold, there are a number of factors that give the Werkself cause for optimism despite the high-calibre opposition.
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