"I'm assuming he will be able to play tomorrow," said head coach Heiko Herrlich referring to his captain. The same applies to Lukas Hradecky who has served a one-match ban for picking up two yellow cards in the Europa League qualifier on 6 August 2015 when he was playing for Bröndby IF. The 28-year-old shot-stopper and Bayer 04 received the surprise news in the past few days. "We received an e-mail from UEFA last week where they confirmed the suspension has now lapsed and that I can play tomorrow," said Hradecky before departure .
After two and a half hours, around 16.00 local time, the Werkself charter plane landed at the airport in Varna. The squad then travelled on the team bus to their hotel in Rasgrad, which is a ten-minute drive away from the Ludogarets Arena.
This evening brings the usual pre-match press conference and final training session ahead of the Europa League opener against Ludogorets Rasgrad (20 September, 21.00 CET).
Twelve Werkself players are in action with their national teams in the current international break. Some of them are playing in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals, others in qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Read on for the blog on international fixtures involving Bayer 04 players.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen and the Hamburg tech start-up GIPEDO are revolutionising communication between clubs and their partners: Via a new partner portal, the GIPEDO workspace, animation advertising can in future be independently administrated by partners.
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A brilliant weekend for the Leverkusen eSports players at the VBL CC finals in Cologne ended without the deserved reward. After the first day of the tournament with only victories in the group phase, Marc and Sean Landwehr overcame last year's champions SC Paderborn 07 at the semi-final stage on Sunday – but then lost in the final to the now sole VBL CC record champions RB Leipzig. A review of the second day of the tournament in the VBL CC finals.
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Bayer 04 Women were convincingly beaten 4-0 by Bundesliga rivals Eintracht Frankfurt in a friendly on Saturday afternoon. Without a total of nine first-team players, coach Roberto Pätzold's side were outdone by the second-placed side in Westerburg.
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