Exequiel Palacios and Argentina ran out comfortable 3-0 winners at home to Bolivia on Thursday night. It means the Albiceleste remain undefeated after eight games in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. The star of the show in Buenos Aires was once again Lionel Messi. The new Paris Saint-Germain forward scored all three goals. The Werkself’s Palacios joined the action in the 82nd minute. It means Argentina remain on course for Qatar in second place of South America’s ten-team qualification group.
However, new Leverkusen man Piero Hincapie is more unsure of his place at the next World Cup. The 19-year-old centre-back played the full 90 minutes for Ecuador as they slipped to an agonising 1-0 defeat in Uruguay. The hosts scored their winner two minutes into added time. La Tri are currently fourth in qualifying, which would be enough for an automatic place in Qatar. But Colombia are only behind them on goal difference in fifth.
Things look less auspicious for Chile and Werkself veteran Charles Aránguiz. They missed out on crucial points as they were beaten 3-1 in Colombia. Aránguiz joined the action for the start of the second half. La Roja currently sit eighth and are six points off fifth, which would see them compete in the inter-confederation play-off.
Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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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 personal 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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