The Leverkusen city clash was played on Sunday 28 July in front of 4,000 spectators. The weather was sunny with pleasant temperatures. Not so pleasant was the shale pitch at Bühl that presented the Bayer 04 players with problems. The incredible happened on 76 minutes: Krumbach made it 1-0 for the Black and Yellows. Bayer 04 were lucky and can thank goalkeeper Hans Benzler that the defeat was not by a bigger margin. The Werkself had one chance to level with a free kick from Klaus Görtz that drew a brilliant save from the Schlebusch keeper Schiller as turned the ball onto the post. The clearly peeved Bayer 04 coach Theo Kirchberg summed up the game as follows: "Professional players must be able to beat an amateur team on a hard pitch. There are no excuses. It's a disgrace for us."
Revenge came a year later and this time the professional players made no mistakes from the start. Bayer 04 sailed through to the second round with a 7-0 victory.
The third and to date the last time there was a clash with SV Schlebusch was on 25 July 1971. Bayer 04 clocked up a 5-1 victory in front of 2,000 spectators.
Emil 'Bubi' Becks was born in Essen on 12 March 1925. As a teenager he played for Union Frintrop. He moved on from Adler Frintrop to the senior team at Rot-Weiß Oberhausen where he scored ten goals in 19 games in his first year in the First Oberliga West. As a skilful centre forward, he brought his teammates into play and was always dangerous in the penalty area. With increasing age he played further and further back with his last games in defensive midfield.
Show moreIt is 27 March 1955. Bayer 04 are set to play relegation-threatened Borussia Mönchengladbach at the Stadion Am Stadtpark. In the Oberliga West in the 1954/55 season, Rot-Weiß Essen are in top spot ahead of the club from Herne, SV Sodingen. The Werkself are having a good season and need every point after the defeat in Münster a week before to get back to second place, which would qualify the club for the games for the German Championship title.
Show moreIn this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of March. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
Show moreAhead of matchday 25 in the 1999/2000 season, the Werkself are in second place in the Bundesliga two points behind reigning champions Bayern Munich. The champions have been top of the table since matchday 10 and the rest of the league are trying to stay in touch with Bayern. From matchday 24, an exciting race develops between Bayer 04 and FC Bayern that lasts to the end of the season.
Show moreSV Baesweiler are the visitors to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on 2 March 1975. With a 2-1 win in front of a crowd of 1,600 the Werkself get revenge for the defeat in the reverse fixture but the best thing about this game were not just two points. Leverkusen failed to really impress against battling visitors. It looked very good after an early goal from Matthias Hemmersbach on eight minutes but the Werkself again went too far with individual actions. Bayer 04 were on top in the first half. And Peter Surbach made it 2-0 with a header at the start of the second 45 but suddenly everything fell apart. Baesweiler pulled a goal back on the hour mark and besieged the goal brilliantly minded by Hubert Makel. In the end it was down to him that the game ended with a 2-1 win.
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