In the 2-2 draw away to Bayern Munich in September of last year, Grimaldo scored from a free kick from 18 metres out with a shot into the top right corner to make it 1-1.
Wirtz opened the scoring in the 2-1 home win against SC Freiburg in October of last year with an impressive solo run. The Germany international won the award for October Goal of the Month by a clear margin.
The two Werkself players are in the vote alongside Harry Kane, Matthijs de Ligt, Kingsley Coman, Joshua Kimmich, Jamal Musiala (all Bayern Munich), Benjamin Pavard (formerly Bayern Munich), Marco Reus, Nico Schlotterbeck (both at Borussia Dortmund), Xavi Simons (RB Leipzig), Florian Grillitsch (TSG Hoffenheim) and Jan-Niklas Beste (FC Heidenheim).
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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