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.
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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Sustainability once again had many faces at Bayer 04 in 2025: In community activity, the club supported countless regional campaigns, including the Leverkusener Tafel, the Frauenennotruf Leverkusen e.V. and the homeless aid organisation "Kältegang". But the Black and Reds have also been involved in good causes around the world - including the Young Coaches training programmes in Uganda and Ecuador plus the Genuine World Cup in the USA, where the Inclusion Werkself competed. Bayer 04 was also fully committed to the environment and underwent external and independently certification in accordance with the European environmental management standard EMAS, for example, to analyse and optimise the club’s environmental efforts. Looking back at sustainability in 2025.
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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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