The players in Black and Red have already surpassed the goals return from last season after 21 matchdays: The Werkself have netted 54 times (last season: 53). Ten of those strikes from the team under head coach Gerardo Seoane came in the past two weeks – with five against FC Augsburg (5-1) and Borussia Dortmund (5-2).
"Confidence always plays a role," explained coach Seoane. And his players certainly have that at the moment: The team have clocked up three wins and one draw in 2022 – putting them top of the form table in the second half of the season. The 43-year-old boss primarily sees the reason for the upturn, after a brief drop in points just before Christmas (one point from three games), as the work in training over recent weeks.
Compared with the months in late autumn, where the Werkself consistently had a busy run of fixtures, Jonathan Tah and Co., have spent considerably more time on the training grounds at the BayArena since the start of the year. Seoane: "We’ve used these weeks to work on certain things – such as transition after winning the ball or learning certain runs. It's all a process and requires a lot of training." Training that is now paying off.
The Werkself are currently clearly top of the table in terms of converting chances: 54 goals from 367 shots provide an impressive rate of 14.7% (In second: BVB with 13.8%; In third: Bayern Munich with 11.6%).
Seoane and his fellow coaches have also fine-tuned the approach to defending. One really important element in the development for the Werkself in the defensive area are previous experiences – which were not always positive. The late 2-1 defeat at Freiburg or the 2-2 draw after leading 2-0 in the derby against FC Köln were "negative experiences at that moment." But Seoane has processed those games with his players in detail and worked out solutions together. The Swiss coach makes it clear: “We first have to go through situations like that to be able to draw conclusions for our game."
It was another incredibly close call in the end: The second showdown in the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship saw the #B04eSports team once again narrowly miss out on a place in the top 16 of the preliminary round – and with it, a spot in the in-person knockout stage. It was a bitter blow: Marc and Sean Landwehr again fell just short, despite being level on points with their rivals. As was the case last month, their weaker record across the twelve individual matches in the six preliminary round fixtures proved decisive.
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“They stuck with us over the past few weeks when things weren’t going so well,” said captain Edmond Tapsoba, thanking the fans for their support after the 2–1 win in Cologne and dedicating the derby victory to them. Throughout the 90 minutes, the Werkself had looked unfazed and in command, inflicting the first home defeat of the season on FC Köln. It was the sixth consecutive win against the Cologne team for Bayer 04 – head coach Carles Martínez, on the other hand, was facing the team from the neighbouring city for the first time and “now really knows what this derby win means”. The Werkself derby review.
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Following the 2–1 derby victory away at FC Köln on Bundesliga matchday 9, Edmond Tapsoba, Malik Tillman and Aleix Garcia spoke to Werkself TV...
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-1 derby win at 1. FC Köln Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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