"We said from the start we wanted to finish top of the group. Nothing's changed in that respect," said Heiko Herrlich after the Tuesday morning training session as he clearly set out the target for Thursday. Nevertheless, the Werkself head coach will use the confirmed progress to the Round of 32 to give some of the players with less match time under their belts the opportunity to play against Ludogorets and "show what they can do and stake a claim for a place in the team."
The two Bender brothers missed full training in the first session of the week on Monday and instead completed individual sessions in the gym at the BayArena and Aleksandar Dragovic plus Jakub Bednarczyk trained on their own on a neighbouring pitch. Long-term injury Pohjanpalo (rehab training) and Tin Jedvaj (muscular problems) missed the Tuesday training session. A decision on the availability of the Croat for Thursday will be made after tomorrow's final pre-match training session.
The next and, at the same time, final open training session of the week will be held on Friday at 11.00 CET.
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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A bitter end to the fifth showdown of the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship as the #B04eSports team failed to take any points in the three remaining matches of the preliminary online round of the fifth and final showdown, missing out on the offline round. They can no longer take points in the overall table. Bayer 04 slipped out on the top eight, so direct participation in the final event for the German Club Championship is no longer possible, with Bayer 04 having to contest the play-offs.
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A rematch in Athens: On Wednesday, 18 February (kick-off: 21:00 CET), the Werkself face Greek double winners Olympiacos for the second time this season at the Karaiskakis Stadium. After the encounter in the league phase, it's now time for the first leg of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-offs. Ahead of the game, head coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke about how his side will approach the clash, while captain Robert Andrich explained how the team will try to dampen the atmosphere in the stadium tomorrow.
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