No goals at Wembley as this time, in contrast to the legendary 1966 World Cup final, a rocket shot from Leroy Sané hit the underside of the bar but was rightly judged not to have crossed the line – in spite of the draw, the game between the two big European football nations proved to be entertaining encounter. Germany kept up their impressive record at England's home of football with a goalless draw that extends an unbeaten record since 1975. Bernd Leno did not play but Julian Brandt came on in the 86th minute to earn his 13th international cap. Joachim Löw's team are in action again in Cologne on Tuesday (20.45 CET) in the final match of the year against France.
Switzerland and Admir Mehmedi are on the verge of qualification for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In the first leg of the play-off against Northern Ireland, the Swiss earned a deserved 1-0 win and they are in the driving seat ahead of Sundays decisive return match at the St Jakob Park stadium in Basel (18.00 CET). The former Wolfsburg player Ricardo Rodriguez, now playing for AC Milan, converted a penalty on 58 minutes for the only goal of the game. Mehmedi came on with three minutes to play for his 57th full international appearance.
Panos Retsos was also on the bench at the start of his play-off match. When the Bayer 04 pro was brought on by Michael Skibbe at the start of the second half, Greece were already 3-1 down against Croatia in Zagreb. The match ended in a 4-1 defeat for the Greeks who were unable to cope with the lively approach of the hosts and they made several errors in defence. Tin Jedvaj, currently recovering in Leverkusen, watched the match from afar and was able to enjoy the Croatian victory. The chances of Greece turning the tie round are slim ahead of Sunday's return match in Piraeus (20.45 CET).
Joel Pohjanpalo and Finland beat Estonia 3-0 in a friendly. 'Danger' played the full 90 minutes and provided the assist for the opening goal. On Sunday (14.30 CET), the two Bayer 04 youth players Sam Schreck and Atakan Akkaynak are set to play for the Germany U19s in Cyprus. Julian Baumgartlinger is likely to play for Austria in a friendly against Uruguay on Tuesday.
Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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Two Saturdays, one Friday and one Sunday: The dates for the Bayer 04 Women's team games on matchdays 16 to 19 have been finalised. Three of the four matches scheduled by the German Football Association (DFB) on Tuesday will be played at home at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
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Bayer 04 currently have a number of promising young talents on loan to various clubs in Europe with the aim of gaining match practice and furthering their individual development. Francis Onyeka and Farid Alfa-Ruprecht, for example, play for VfL Bochum 1848, while Artem Stepanov is a striker with 1. FC Nürnberg, coached by World Cup winner Miroslav Klose. Tim Oermann is a defender in the Austrian Bundesliga at top club SK Sturm Graz and Abdoulaye Faye is playing in France for FC Lorient, promoted to Ligue 1 this season. Bayer04.de reviews the first six months for the Leverkusen players out on loan.
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Despite a courageous display, the Bayer 04 Women missed out on a surprise at the start of the second half of the Bundesliga season. Coach Roberto Pätzold's team lost 3-0 to league leaders Bayern Munich on Monday night. An early goal from the clinical visitors, a disputed penalty and another spot-kick prevented Leverkusen, who are seventh in the table on 22 points from 14 games, from picking up a point in front of 3,011 spectators at the sold-out Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
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