In the first half, Bayer 04 are playing into a low sun and very strong wind. Leverkusen are unable to make the most of dominating possession. The two sides going goalless at half-time.
After the restart, the hosts are camped in the opposition half. Dr Klaus Heydenreich, with an assist from Hans-Otto Peters, gives Bayer 04 the deserved lead at 1-0 on 50 minutes with the help of the wind. A minute later, with a counter-attack from Herten, goalkeeper Friedhelm Renno makes a save with a full-length dive. He collides with a Herten player and both fall to the ground. But the Bayer keeper does not get up again. He has broken his ankle. Renno is carried off on a stretcher and defender Werner Biskup pulls on the keeper’s shirt.
With eleven against ten, the visitors sense a chance and pepper the stand-in goalkeeper. But he not only surprises the spectators. Diving, catching and punching he keeps a clean sheet. And the ten Leverkusen players not only resist but also go on the front foot. Heydenreich increases the lead with two more goals on 65 and 80 minutes to make it 3-0 and clock up a hat-trick. The fourth goal on 85 minutes is scored by the young Hans-Joachim Wöhler who made the step up to the first team from the youth ranks in the summer. Werner Biskup did have to pick the ball out of the back of the net in the end. But that doesn't matter as all the Bayer 04 fans go home happy after the 4-1 win. New Year's Eve 1963 can come.
Hans Sarpei was born on 28 June 1976 in Tema, Ghana, and came to Germany with his parents at the age of three, where he grew up in Cologne. Even before he was born, his mother and father worked in Hamburg in the import-export sector. There they met an older man who introduced them to German culture and supported them. Out of gratitude, Hans was later given his first name, although this man died before he was born. Hans comes from a sporting family; his older brother Edward and his nephews Hans Nunoo Sarpei and Kingsley Sarpei were or are also professional footballers.
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On 3 June 1953, Hans-Josef (‘Sepp’) Kretschmann became the fifth coach in the history of Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Born in Allenstein, East Prussia, on 21 March 1902, the football coach first studied to become a teacher before later switching to football. He took over the Werkself from Franz Strehle, under whom the team twice managed to stay in the 1st Oberliga West. However, Strehle did not extend his contract in Leverkusen after these two very successful years.
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After promotion to Bundesliga North 2 in the summer of 1975, Bayer 04 are fighting relegation just eight months later. The club expects full commitment from everyone in this precarious situation. Promotion coach Manfred Rummel is to give up his main job as a teacher at the Mülheim special school and become a full-time coach at Bayer 04. The coach, who is very popular with the team, does not see himself in a position to fulfil the club's request. Despite a 2-0 home win against SpVgg Erkenschwick, Manfred Rummel is put on gardening leave by "mutual agreement".
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Bayer 04, already been promoted to the 1st Oberliga West, played friendly after friendly in the second half of May 1951. And that continued throughout the following month.
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Jacek Krzynowek was born on 15 May 1976 in Kamiensk, Poland, and grew up as a typical country boy. He spent his childhood less in structured training sessions and more on simple pitches, where he spent hours playing football with older boys. He realised early on that he had exceptional shooting power and enormous stamina. But for a long time, he didn't appreciate just how much talent he had. While others dream of a great career, professional football initially seems like a distant world to him that he only knows from television.
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