Chelsea just took up preparations for the new season this week. After the 3-0 victory in the Club World Cup final against Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain in mid-July, Enzo Maresca’s team enjoyed a three-week holiday. The clash with the Werkself is the first friendly for the Blues.
The side from west London will not have much time for more matches as the Premier League campaign starts next weekend. Chelsea contest their second and final friendly the day after tomorrow, when they take on AC Milan at Stamford Bridge. Their first league clash will be staged on 17 August, when Chelsea entertain south London rivals Crystal Palace.
Bayer 04 and Chelsea have only faced off twice so far. The Werkself won 2-1 at the BayArena in the UEFA Champions League group stage in 2011/12, when Chelsea went on to win Europe’s premier club competition. The London side won the return fixture 2-0. Players like Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and John Terry were in action for Chelsea back then, with the likes of Michael Ballack, André Schürrle, Renato Augusto and Simon Rolfes, today’s managing director for sport, featuring for the Black and Reds.
About 350 fans will travel to England to support the Werkself at Stamford Bridge. The Bayer 04 Fan Liaison has compiled all the relevant info for the fans as usual. Click here for the Fan Information!
Bayer 04 host Borussia Mönchengladbach at the BayArena on matchday 12 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season. The schedule for the game remains to be confirmed. The latest information on ticket sales.
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Bayer 04 host Eintracht Frankfurt at the BayArena on matchday 14 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season. The schedule for the game remains to be confirmed. The latest information on ticket sales.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 0-1 loss at Bayern Munich in the round of 16 of the women's DFB-Pokal 2026/27
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“As far as mentality and determination are concerned, we have nothing to reproach ourselves for,” Robert Andrich said up after the first home defeat for the Werkself this term. In terms of their play, too, the Black and Reds put in a respectable performance for long stretches of this intense and physical match, outperforming VfB Stuttgart in most areas. It was only in terms of efficiency in front of goal that the Swabians had the edge over the Werkself. Head coach Carles Martínez wants to learn from this so that, in future, they can “win this sort of match too”. The Werkself review.
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career working as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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