Germany drew 2-2 with Mexico last night in their second friendly in the current international break. Head coach Julian Nagelsmann again started Jonathan Tah and Florian Wirtz. The latter set up Niklas Füllkrug to level at 2-2 on 51 minutes. Jonas Hofmann came on as a substitute on 65 minutes with Robert Andrich remaining on the bench for the second game.
A great honour for Granit Xhaka: In an exciting 3-3 draw for Switzerland against Belarus, the midfielder made his 118th international appearance to draw level with the previous recordholder Heinz Hermann. The 31-year-old national team captain played the full 90 minutes in the Euro qualifier.
Other Werkself players were also involved in Euro qualifiers. Czechia beat the Faroe Islands 1-0. Adam Hlozek started and played the whole game with teammate Matej Kovar remaining on the bench. Czechia are now second in Group E with 11 points. The Netherlands also secured a win. Oranje captain Virgil van Dijk scored the only goal of the game against Greece from the penalty spot in added time and Jeremie Frimpong did not come on.
Josip Stanisic was on the losing side with Croatia. They lost 2-1 to Wales with Stanisic coming on in the second half. Lukas Hradecky and Finland suffered the same fate with the Scandinavian side losing 2-1 against Kazakhstan. That means Finland can no longer qualify for Euro 2024.
Following Ecuador's 2-1 win against Bolivia last week, the South American team drew 0-0 with Colombia in the second World Cup qualifier in the current international break. Piero Hincapie played the full 90 minutes. Ecuador are now sixth on four points with the unbeaten World Cup winners Argentina topping the group after a fourth victory in the qualifiers. The Albiceleste beat Peru 2-0 but Exequiel Palacios did not feature in the match.
Morocco played their final qualifier against Liberia having already qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations. They secured a convincing 3-0 win. Amine Adli came off the bench on 65 minutes and scored the third goal just before the end of the game (89'). It was the winger's first strike for Morocco. Morocco are top of their group at the end of the qualifiers.
Two other Werkself players were involved in friendlies. Victor Boniface was a substitute on 75 minutes in the 3-2 win for Nigeria against Mozambique. Ivory Coast drew 1-1 with South Africa but Odilon Kossounou did not play in the game. Both Nigeria and hosts Ivory Coast are qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations finals next year and they will face each other in Group A.
For media representatives: As part of the preparations for the forthcoming 2025/26 season, all accreditation requests for Werkself home fixtures in all competitions (national and European) can only be made from now via the new online accreditation portal.
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This special event deeply affected all Bayer 04 representatives present: On the penultimate day of the Bayer 04 Brazil Tour, a selected delegation, led by CEO Fernando Carro and club legend Paulo Sergio, made their way to the ‘Instituto Bola pra Frente’. The former Werkself player Jorginho set up the welfare organisation 25 years ago in a deprived area of Rio de Janeiro, which was where he lived as a child. The Brazil World Cup winner of 1994 welcomed Bayer 04 as the first club ever to visit and he shared deep and, above all, emotional insights into his day-to-day work in the favelas.
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It's always a great pleasure to watch football crazy children being so happy pursuing their big passion. It was the same this time round when a small delegation led by Luiz Felipe, the son of Paulo Sergio and technical director of the recently opened Bayer 04 Football Academy São Paulo, visited the German School in Rio de Janeiro and held a training session as part of the Bayer 04 Brazil Tour. On the football pitch in front of the school building, 70 children had an afternoon full of fun and joy with a view of the world famous Christ the Redeemer.
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Day eight of the Bayer 04 Brazil Tour, which is slowly drawing to a close. And there is a busy programme of events on this penultimate day: The Werkself are training at the CR Flamengo training facility for the last time with a practice match included and some of the Bayer 04 players will face the media in the afternoon. At the same time, a small delegation will visit the German School in the centre of Rio de Janeiro. This evening will close with a dinner with representatives of the city. As usual, bayer04.de keeps you up-to-date with on-the-spot reports. The day eight blog on the Bayer 04 Brazil Tour (timings given in local time).
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