Joachim Löw must know the Leverkusen dialling code by heart now as the Germany coach has selected the European Championship players Bernd Leno and Jonathan Tah plus Karim Bellarabi, Julian Brandt and Kevin Volland in his squad.
All five can hope to feature in Wednesday’s friendly against Finland in Mönchengladbach (20.45 CET) and in Sunday’s opening qualifier for the 2018 World Cup against Norway on Sunday (20.45 CET). Olympic silver medal Brandt has been promised a part in Löw’s team for the first match. “I liked the way the team played in Rio and that’s why I called up players like Süle, Meyer and Brandt. They will get the chance to play on Wednesday. By agreement with Hansi Flick one or other players will return to their clubs as they have all been working hard in recent weeks,” said Löw ahead of the team meeting up in Düsseldorf as reported on www.dfb.de.
The five German players are not the only players on the road this week with a total of 19 Werkself players called up for international duty. Joel Pohjanpalo is set to be in the Finland line-up against Germany after scoring two minutes into his debut for the Werkself. The Austria squad includes the three new signings Julian Baumgartlinger, Rambo Özcan and Aleksandar Dragovic.
One head-to-head and two debuts
There is one match of special interest from a Leverkusen point of view: As at Euro 2016 Croatia and Turkey face each other. Croatia with Tin Jedvaj won 1-0 in France so Hakan Calhanoglu and Co. will be looking for revenge. Admir Mehmedi has been called up by Switzerland and Kevin Kampl by Slovenia. And Vladlen Yurchenko can look forward to making his full international debut for Ukraine.
And Benny Henrichs is also about to make his debut: He has been called up for the Germany U21 squad under new coach Stefan Kuntz and Joel Abu Hanna is in the Germany U19 squad. And Charles Aránguiz will be in action in South America with Chile in the race for World Cup qualification.
Internationals involving Bayer 04 players:
Wednesday 31.08.
20.00 CET: Turkey v Russia (Calhanoglu)
20.45 CET: Germany v Finland (Leno, Tah, Bellarabi, Brandt, Volland || Pohjanpalo)
Thursday 01.08.
12.30 CET: Australia v Iraq (Kruse)
20.45 CET: Netherlands v Greece (Papadopoulos)
Friday 02.09.
02.00 CET: Paraguay v Chile (Aránguiz)
18.00 CET: Germany U19 v Russia U19 (Abu Hanna)
18.15 CET: Germany U21 v Slovakia U21 (Henrichs)
Sunday 04.09.
18.00 CET: Lithuania v Slovenia (Kampl)
20.45 CET: Norway v Germany (Leno, Tah, Bellarabi, Brandt, Volland)
Monday 05.09.
18.00 CET: Georgia v Austria (Özcan, Baumgartlinger, Dragovic)
18.00 CET: Germany U19 v Netherlands U19 (Abu Hanna)
20.45 CET: Croatia v Turkey (Jedvaj || Calhanoglu)
20.45 CET: Kosovo v Finland (Pohjanpalo)
20.45 CET: Ukraine v Iceland (Yurchenko)
Tuesday 06.09.
13.30 CET: UAE v Australia (Kruse)
18.00 CET: Finland U21 v Germany U21 (Henrichs)
20.45 CET: Switzerland v Portugal (Mehmedi)
20.45 CET: Gibraltar v Greece (Papadopoulos)
Wednesday 07.09.
01.00 CET: Chile v Bolivia (Aránguiz).
The Werkself kicked off the final international break of the current season on Monday morning with the first of three open training sessions this week. While eleven Bayer 04 players will be away on international duty in the coming days, the other players will be working together in Leverkusen. The next challenge in the Bundesliga awaits on Saturday, 4 April (kick-off: 15:30 CEST) with the home game against VfL Wolfsburg.
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