
Bernd Leno and Julian Brandt helped secure a place in Russia for Germany at the World Cup finals on Thursday. The two Bayer 04 players did not play in the 3-1 victory over Northern Ireland but can hope to get a start in Sunday's final qualifier (20.45 CET) against Azerbaijan in Kaiserslautern. Speaking at the pre-match press conference on Saturday, Joachim Löw said Bernd Leno would be in goal on Sunday.
The Germany U21s secured a 6-1 victory over Azerbaijan in the second European Championship qualifier. Jonathan Tah captained Stefan Kuntz's team and played the full 90 minutes, Benjamin Henrichs provided the assist for the third goal from left back before being substituted on 67 minutes. The European Champions are in action in Norway on Tuesday.
The chance of qualifying for next year's World Cup in Russia is out of their reach but Julian Baumgartlinger and Joel Pohjanpalo had reason to celebrate. 'Baumi' captained Austria in the impressive 3-2 win against group-leaders Serbia, 'Danger' secured a point for Finland with a last-minute goal in the surprise 1-1 draw with Croatia. Both Leverkusen players went the full distance.
Sidelined in Leverkusen, the crossed fingers of Charles Aránguiz may well have helped: Chile kept their hopes of qualifying alive in the South American group with a late winner in the 2-1 victory over Ecuador with the other results seeing them rise to third spot ahead of the final match against the qualified Brazil on Tuesday with one game to play and everything to play for in their hands in the night to Wednesday.
The Germany U19 s are on a good run at the moment with a trio of Bayer 04 players making a decisive contribution. After Kai Havertz had a fantastic day in Wednesday's 5-1 win in the European Championship qualifiers in Poland with four goals and one assist, Atakan Akkaynak and Sam Schreck followed up with two great performances. The two Bayer 04 lads scored the first two goals for Germany in Saturday's runaway 7-1 win against Northern Ireland, with Havertz making it 4-1 from the penalty spot. All three played the full 90 minutes. The Germany U19s take on hosts Poland on Tuesday (18.00 CET) in the race for top spot.
The Germany U17s started the World Cup finals in India with a 2-1 win against Costa Rica. Jan Boller of Bayer 04 had a good game in central defence, Goalkeeper Marian Prinz did not play in Goa. The ambitious Germany team face Iran (Tuesday) and Guinea (Friday) in the two remaining group matches.

Whenever the leading figures in European club football come together, Bayer 04 are right in the thick of it: At the 33rd General Assembly of the European Football Clubs (EFC) in Copenhagen, Fernando Carro, CEO, and Simon Rolfes, Managing Director Sport, discussed key sporting and economic issues for the future.
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Having progressed to the DFB Pokal Round of 16, the Bayer 04 Women do not have much time before their next Bundesliga fixture. On Friday night (18:30 CEST), coach Roberto Pätzold’s side kick off matchday six at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium against Werder Bremen – and they have a clear mission.
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career working as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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Bayer 04 host top French club Marseille at the BayArena on matchday four in the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League group stage. The match kicks off on Thursday 5 November at 21:00 CET. The latest information on ticket sales.
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