Bayer 04 take the lead on six minutes through Ulf Kirsten and lose two players within 30 seconds on 28 minutes after second yellow cards: Markus Münch and the goalscorer. A third Werkself player is sent off on 63 minutes when Carsten Ramelow gets his marching orders. The seven outfield players battle for 30 minutes in and around the penalty area to deny an equaliser. Wave after wave of attacks roll towards the Bayer 04 goal. Schalke only manage to level the scores at 1-1 on 89 minutes. Bayer 04 are in a relegation battle up to the end of the season and only finally avoid the drop on the final matchday. But more on that next month…
The 2003/04 season gets off to a very good start. Bayer 04 are in the leading group straightaway and are third at the end of the first half of the season on 35 points, level with second-placed Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart in fourth, and only four points behind league leaders Werder Bremen. But form drops off after the winter break with just one point picked up in six games.
At the home game against VfL Wolfsburg, the North Stand is empty for the first 15 minutes as the fans protest with a banner left on the fence: “We don’t support alibi football.” The response from the team comes after a few seconds when Dimitar Berbatov scores the opener. The game ended in a 4-2 victory for the Werkself.
That was the start of the race to get to the Champions League spots, which included a 6-0 victory over FC Kaiserslautern that remains the biggest Bundesliga home win for Bayer 04.The Werkself end the league campaign in third place and qualify for the Champions League.
Tranquillo Barnetta was born in St. Gallen in Switzerland on 22 May 1985. Quillo, as he was called in the football world, has Italian roots. His great-grandfather emigrated from Italy to the east of Switzerland. Quillo was interested in football early on and he played for the St. Gallen club FC Rotmonten from the age of six. He joined his favourite club FC St. Gallen at the age of 11. There he became a youth international. He won the European Championships with his teammates in the Switzerland U17 team in 2002. The youngsters from Switzerland beat France 4-2 on penalties in the final to become U17 European champions.
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Since the establishment of the Bundesliga on 28 July 1962 for the 1963/64 season, there have been five Regional Leagues: North, Berlin, West, South-west and South. The champions of those five leagues qualified directly for promotion play-offs that were played in two groups of four teams. That included the two second-placed teams in the West and South-west Regional Leagues. The two runners-up from the North and the South played a qualifier for the eighth place in the promotion games.
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In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of May. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
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There were high summer temperatures in Leverkusen on 25 May 1985. Matchday 32 brings FC Köln to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium with only 13,000 spectators at the derby. That is primarily due to the Werkself with Bayer 04 rarely impressing in that season and they are eleventh in the table before the game just three points ahead of sixteenth, the play-off spot. But with the two points for a win rule back then – two points were awarded for a win – and with the significantly better goal difference, the Werkself need every point to get out of trouble.
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It was all or nothing on the final matchday in the Verbandsliga in the 1974/75 season. Only now would it be decided who were champions and thereby participate in the promotion games to the Bundesliga 2 North. The earlier rivals Viktoria Köln, SC Jülich 10 and Bonner SC have fallen by the wayside.
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