Following the 3-0 victory in the opening match in Norway Germany continued to shine on matchday two in Group C with a convincing 3-0 win in the World Cup qualifier against the Czech Republic in Hamburg. Thomas Müller, who scored twice against the Scandinavians, was on target again with another brace and Toni Kroos netted the other goal for Joachim Löw’s team. Julian Brandt replaced Julian Draxler on 80 minutes to win his fourth full international cap for Germany. Bernd Leno and Kevin Volland did not feature in Hamburg.
Admir Mehmedi and Switzerland are on course in Group B. The 2-0 win against reigning European champions Portugal in the first match was followed by a 3-2 victory over Hungary to put the Swiss top of the table on maximum points ahead of the Faroe Islands (4) and Portugal (3). The Werkself pro, on from the start, was replaced late on by the Valentin Stocker with the Hertha Berlin midfielder scoring the winner on 88 minutes. Adam Szalai (Hoffenheim) twice levelled for Hungary to cancel out goals from Haris Seferovic (Eintracht Frankfurt) and Rodrigo Rodriguez (Wolfsburg).
The Germany U21 team secured a 4-3 win against Russia in Ingolstadt to qualify for next year’s European Championships. Germany, now coached by Stefan Kuntz in place of Horst Hrubesch, earned a ninth win in their ninth qualifier. Jonathan Tah played the full 90 minutes in central defence and he had a good game. Benjamin Henrichs did not play.
Henrichs back with the Werkself
Ahead of Tuesday’s final group match against Austria in St. Pölten Henrichs returns to Leverkusen as the youngster has seen a lot of action for the Werkself in recent weeks. Stefan Kuntz agreed the move in discussion with Bayer 04 head coach Roger Schmidt.
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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After being nominated for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025, Martin Terrier's wonderful strike for the opener against FC Köln is now also up for selection for the ARD Sportschau Goal of the Month award for December 2025. Bayer 04 fans have until 19:00 CET on 10 January to vote for the French forward.
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After a break of almost two weeks, the Bayer 04 Women begin preparing for games in 2026 on Sunday. Bayer04.de provides an overview of the dates at the start of the second half of the season.
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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 as he worked 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 personalised 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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