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.
Newly promoted SV 07 Elversberg will begin the 2026/27 season as Bundesliga club number 59. The Saarland club start their first Bundesliga campaign at home to the Werkself on Saturday, 29 August (kick-off 15:30 CEST) at the URSAPHARM Arena on Kaiserlinde, which is currently being rebuilt. For one Leverkusen player in the ‘Elv’ line-up, the clash will be a special reunion. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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The fixture details for the Bayer 04 Women’s first match in the 2026/27 DFB Pokal has been confirmed: As announced by the German Football Association (DFB) on Thursday morning, the Leverkusen Women will face second-tier side FC Viktoria Berlin in the first round on Sunday 27 September at 14:00 CEST.
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Once again, well over 100 Werkself fans were delighted to receive an invitation from the club’s record appearance-maker, Rüdiger Vollborn, to the sold-out Schwadbud at the BayArena. This time, the supporters listened as the club historian provided fascinating, exclusive insights into the period from Bayer 04 being founded in 1904 to the club’s promotion to the Bundesliga in 1979. A journey through time is also planned for the upcoming ‘Rudi lädt ein’ event in early November – this time focusing on the years of the Nazi regime.
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Getting in the mood for the new season together, exchanging ideas and looking ahead to the coming months: Bayer 04 welcomed partners to the BayArena for the annual sponsors season-launch event. In a relaxed atmosphere, the management, head coach and players came together with representatives from partner companies to celebrate the start of the 2026/27 season.
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