It was a perfect start: Amine Adli scored his first goal for France in his debut for the U21 side. The striker played the full 90 minutes in the European Championship qualifier against Ukraine and he scored the third goal. His teammates added another two before the final whistle to earn the young Equipe Tricolore a deserved 5-0 victory.
The ninth international cap for Odilon Kossounou ended with complete success for the Bayer 04 defender. The Ivory Coast beat Malawi 3-0 in a World Cup qualifier to secure top spot in Group D. The team under head coach Patrice Beaumelle have picked up seven points in the first three matches (two wins, one draw) and are currently one point ahead of Cameroon. The Ivorians are in action again on Monday, 11 October (kick-off: 18.00 CEST) with the return match against Malawi.
The Czech Republic, with Werkself striker Patrik Schick, earned a fair 2-2 draw against Wales in a hard-fought encounter. Aaron Ramsey put Wales ahead on 36 minutes but the Czechs replied two minutes later with a goal from Jakub Pesek.
Just after the restart, there was a bizarre own goal from the Wales keeper Danny Ward: Ramsey played a casual back pass to his shot-stopper who was clearly not expecting it. Ward scrambled back and hit the ball with the outside of his foot onto the right-hand post. From there it bounced back onto his head and into the goal. Schick and Co. failed to maintain their lead with Daniel James levelling on 69 minutes.
Jeremie Frimpong and Mitchel Bakker are currently away with the Netherlands U21 team. While the latter was not in the squad for the U 21 European Championship qualifier against Switzerland, Frimpong made his second appearance in an Oranje shirt. The 20-year-old was in the starting line-up and he helped his team come back from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw. The Bayer 04 defender was substituted on 86 minutes. The goals for the Dutch team were scored by Joshua Zirkzee who is currently on loan from Bayern Munich at the Belgian top-flight club Anderlecht.
Florian Wirtz and Andrey Lunev watched from the sidelines as their national teams both won. Germany came back from a 1-0 deficit at half-time against Rumania to win 2-1, and Russia beat Slovakia 1-0.
Carolin Simon is the new captain of the Bayer 04 women’s team. The full-back, who joined from Bayern Munich in the summer, will take over the captain’s armband for the 2026/27 season. Simon returned to Leverkusen in the summer after ten years away. The 33-year-old succeeds goalkeeper Friederike Repohl, who retired at the end of last season.
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SV Wehen Wiesbaden undoubtedly envisaged a different start to the new season. After two matchdays, the Hessen side currently sit bottom of the Liga 3 table. On Saturday 22 August (kick-off: 13:00 CEST), SVWW host the Werkself in the first round of the DFB Pokal at their home ground, the BRITA Arena. It was there, in this very competition a year ago, that the club almost pulled off a massive upset. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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Farid Alfa-Ruprecht is going out on loan from Bayer 04 Leverkusen to Bundesliga 2 side Hertha Berlin. The pacy winger will be at the Berlin club for one year.
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Heading towards the competitive start of the 2026/27 season together: the Werkself kicked off preparations for the DFB Pokal clash at third-tier SV Wehen Wiesbaden with an open session in front of their fans on Tuesday morning. Before the first-round tie on Saturday 22 August at 13:00 CEST - for which the away section is already sold out - there'll be one more open session on Thursday from 11:00 CEST, when fans have another chance to watch head coach Carles Martínez's men at work.
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