The Black and Red tour group heading for Scotland consists of two goalkeepers and 18 outfield players. Florian Wirtz is on board and in the squad for the first time since his torn cruciate. The Leverkusen U19 players Madi Monamay, Noah Pesch and Isaiah Okafor may also have the chance to show what they can do. The full squad for the Rangers friendly:
Lukas Hradecky, Niklas Lomb – Jonathan Tah, Mitchel Bakker, Odilon Kossounou, Robert Andrich, Kerem Demirbay, Nadiem Amiri, Edmond Tapsoba, Moussa Diaby, Amine Adli, Daley Sinkgraven, Adam Hlozek, Florian Wirtz, Zidan Sertdemir, Ayman Azhil, Madi Monamay, Isaiah Okafor, Noah Pesch und Karim Bellarabi.
Tonight (Friday) the Werkself players and the whole Bayer 04 group will meet up in the team hotel to watch the World Cup quarter-final between the Netherlands and Argentina. Leverkusen teammates Jeremie Frimpong (Netherlands) and Exequiel Palacios (Argentina) are in Qatar.
The hosts are currently second in the table in the Scottish Premiership behind Celtic (42 points) with 33 points from 15 games. The battle for the title with the local rivals resumes in the New Year with a new coach: Rangers parted company with Giovanni van Bronckhorst two weeks ago following the exit from the Champions League and one win, one defeat and one draw in last league matches.
The Dutchman played for Rangers from 1998 to 2001. In his 69 games in charge, the 47-year-old took the club to the final of the Europa League in 2021/22 with the game against Eintracht Frankfurt ending in a 6-5 defeat on penalties. Under van Bronckhorst, the Scottish record champions won the domestic cup competition and also qualified for the Champions League for the first time in twelve years.
The new coach at the helm is Michael Beale. The 42-year-old was last in charge of the English second tier club Queens Park Rangers. Beale knows Rangers inside out: The Englishman was the assistant coach to Steven Gerard from 2018 to 2021. Beale makes his debut as head coach in the friendly against Bayer 04.
The previous meeting with Rangers at Ibrox was on 12 March 2020 – and it was a special game. The 3-1 away win for Bayer 04 was also the last fixture before games were suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. Here is the report on the previous match at Ibrox.
There is great anticipation for the first minutes on the pitch for Florian Wirtz following his torn cruciate. Head coach Xabi Alonso talked about the return of the 19-year-old a few days ago: "If everything goes right then he will get his first minutes in the forthcoming friendlies." Wirtz was in the starting line-up in the Europa League second leg against Rangers in the late summer of 2020 – for his debut on the European stage.
The Werkself friendly at Scottish record champions Rangers will be broadcast live on Werkself TV and the Bayer 04 YouTube channel. The stream starts 10 minutes before kick-off at 13.50 CET. Niko Hartmann is the commentator on Werkself Radio and he will report live from Ibrox.
Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 1-0 win against FC Carl Zeiss Jena on the 21th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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Bayer 04 have fond memories of their encounters with Heidenheim, including a resounding 6-0 win in the reverse fixture. Kasper Hjulmand’s side would very much like to produce a similarly clinical display as they now head to the Voith-Arena for Matchday 27 on Saturday (15:30 CET). But they come up against a team fighting for their Bundesliga lives at the bottom of the table, 10 points adrift of safety with time running out. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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The Bayer 04 Women welcome FC Carl Zeiss Jena to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on Sunday night in a white retro look - and in a unique Bayer 04 ‘50 Years of Fan Clubs’ special edition jersey. In sporting terms, head coach Roberto Pätzold's team will face the Bundesliga's bottom team at 18:30 CET looking to keep their chances of third place in the table alive with six games left to play.
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Bayer 04 return to Bundesliga action this weekend. Following their elimination in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League, the Werkself are away to FC Heidenheim 1846 on Saturday, 21 March (kick-off: 15:30 CET) on Bundesliga matchday 27. Ahead of the clash in the eastern Swabian Alps, head coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the importance of the fixture and the chances of qualifying for the Champions League next term.
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A quick look at the table shows the situation at FC Heidenheim is serious. The Bundesliga bottom club are already ten points behind the play-off spot with their backs to the wall in sporting terms. With eight games left to play, avoiding relegation appears to be a mission impossible. Nevertheless, they are far from flying the white flag at the Schlossberg ahead of the clash with the Werkself this Saturday, 21 March (kick-off: 15:30 CET). The lowdown on our next opponents.
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