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.
The Werkself bring down the curtain on their 2024/25 Bundesliga campaign with a game away at Mainz on Saturday (kick-off: 3.30pm CEST). Here’s all you need to know ahead of the Matchday 34 meeting at the MEWA Arena.
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Bayer 04 close out the 2024/25 season away at Mainz on Saturday (3.30pm CEST) looking to end the campaign on a high. In his final press conference as Leverkusen boss, Xabi Alonso spoke about how he plans to approach the Bundesliga Matchday 34 fixture and also about his time with the Werkself.
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Bayer 04’s final game of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season takes them to Mainz on Saturday (kick-off: 3.30pm CEST) for what’ll be a real final for the hosts. They come into Matchday 34 in sixth place, which would see them qualify for the play-off rounds of the UEFA Conference League, but they are only ahead of RB Leipzig in seventh on goal difference. Still, Bo Henriksen’s team have their fate in their own hands if they want to qualify for European competition for only the fourth time in the club’s history. Here's all you need to know about our next opponents.
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The Werkself are away to FSV Mainz 05 on the final Bundesliga matchday of the 2024/25 season. The game is on Saturday, 17 May (kick-off: 15:30 CEST). The Bayer 04 Fan Liaison team brings you the latest information on the fixture at the MEWA Arena...
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