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.
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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The men's clothing retailer LERROS will remain the official fashion and premium partner of Bayer 04 for the current season. As in the past, LERROS will provide the club's men's team, coaching staff and management with high-quality clothing for international trips.
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“Diaby! Diaby! Diaby!” was the cry around the BayArena as the Werkself danced in front of the north stand following their 4-0 win over Union Berlin. Captain Edmond Tapsoba gave his new (and old) teammate a friendly shove forward to take in the acclaim from the fans. The returning Frenchman was typically reserved in thanking the supporters but was clearly emotional about what was happening.
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Bayer 04 produced a dominant and impressive 4-0 win over Union Berlin as they picked up three points in their first home game of the 2026/27 Bundesliga campaign. Exequiel Fernández opened the scoring after only 41 seconds, with Facundo Medina doubling the lead before the half-hour mark. Patrik Schick and Ibrahim Maza continued the procession in the second period, in which Moussa Diaby came on for his first Leverkusen appearance for over three years.
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