In the twelfth minute, the referee Florian Jäger abandoned the match at the Alois Latini Stadium on Lake Zell due to heavy thunderstorm. With clear weather at the kick-off a storm drew in with thunder and lightning making it impossible to carry on playing the friendly for health and safety reasons.
The Werkself looked good up to the point play was halted with the best chance in this brief encounter falling to Kyriakos Papadopoulos. A corner from Hakan Calhanoglu was headed against the bar by the Greece central defender. He attempted to score with the rebound but the Teutonia keeper Yannik Dauth pulled off a great save. The two teams raced to the changing rooms shortly after that and the final decision to abandon the game came 15 minutes later.
The next friendly for Roger Schmidt and his team is on Thursday night. The Italian top-flight club Fiorentina provide the opposition in an 18.00 CET kick-off at the Alois Latini Stadium. Before that, the Werkself will be working hard in training in Zell am See-Kaprun to ensure being fully fit for the start of the season with the first match on 21 August away to SC Hauenstein in the DFB Cup.
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Lomb – Jedvaj, Papadopoulos, Ramalho, Wendell – Aránguiz, Yurchenko – Öztunali, Calhanoglu, Mehmedi – Pohjanpalo.
It was another incredibly close call in the end: The second showdown in the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship saw the #B04eSports team once again narrowly miss out on a place in the top 16 of the preliminary round – and with it, a spot in the in-person knockout stage. It was a bitter blow: Marc and Sean Landwehr again fell just short, despite being level on points with their rivals. As was the case last month, their weaker record across the twelve individual matches in the six preliminary round fixtures proved decisive.
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“They stuck with us over the past few weeks when things weren’t going so well,” said captain Edmond Tapsoba, thanking the fans for their support after the 2–1 win in Cologne and dedicating the derby victory to them. Throughout the 90 minutes, the Werkself had looked unfazed and in command, inflicting the first home defeat of the season on FC Köln. It was the sixth consecutive win against the Cologne team for Bayer 04 – head coach Carles Martínez, on the other hand, was facing the team from the neighbouring city for the first time and “now really knows what this derby win means”. The Werkself derby review.
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Following the 2–1 derby victory away at FC Köln on Bundesliga matchday 9, Edmond Tapsoba, Malik Tillman and Aleix Garcia spoke to Werkself TV...
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-1 derby win at 1. FC Köln Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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