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.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen have appointed Carles Martínez Novell as the new head coach. The 42-year-old Spaniard worked for FC Toulouse in the French Ligue 1 until the end of the season. Martínez finished last term in ninth place with the club from the south of France. He will take over the Werkself on 1 July 2026 and has signed a contract to 30 June 2028. Martínez, whose contract with Toulouse expires at the end of the month, succeeds Kasper Hjulmand at Leverkusen, who is leaving the club after one season.
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Welcome to Leverkusen, Carles Martínez Novell. Bayer 04 have appointed the 42-year-old Spaniard as the new head coach on a contract to 2028. Martínez most recently worked for FC Toulouse in the French Ligue 1 until the end of the season. He previously spent four years at Barcelona's legendary academy La Masia in his home city. Bayer04.de introduces Martínez in more detail.
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Bayer 04 plans for the 2026/27 pre-season continue to take shape. The Werkself will kick off the new season in mid-July with the return to the training ground. The highlight will be the official season opener on 8 August at the BayArena, including a friendly against La Liga club Sevilla. Friendlies in Germany will take the team to neighbouring Monheim, Offenbach and Jena.
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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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