The German Football Association (DFB) have appointed Christian Dingert as today's match referee for the game at the MEWA Arena in Mainz. The 42-year-old has been in charge of twelve Werkself games to date resulting in four wins, three draws and five defeats. His assistants are Timo Gerach and Thomas Gorniak and Dr Felix Brych is in the VAR booth. Have a good game.
Bayer 04 have scored in all of the past ten Bundesliga matches against Mainz 05. That is the longest run of goals for the Werkself against an opponent currently in the Bundesliga. The statistics generally favour the team led by head coach Gerardo Seoane: 17 wins, five draws and 11 defeats in 33 meetings. The Werkself also come out top in a comparison of statistics. But that was also the case before the last two home games against Augsburg in Hoffenheim – with both games ending in defeat for Leverkusen.
Continuing with winning ways: In spite of losing key players like former captain Moussa Niakhaté, who has joined Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, and also Jeremiah St. Juste, who has signed for the Lisbon club Sporting CP, Mainz have been able to maintain their impressive performances from last season. FSV have made a respectable start to the season with two wins and one draw in the first three games and they are currently fourth in the table. The team from the Rhineland Palatinate also won their DFB Cup game with ease (3-0 against Erzgebirge Aue). All the key information on today's opponents from Mainz can be found in the lowdown on our next opponents.
You can also follow the Seoane team as usual via Werkself Radio. Anybody unable to support the team from the away stand at the MEWA Arena, can listen to the radio broadcast from half an hour before kick-off. Cedric Pick and Niko Hartmann will again keep you up-to-date on the match against Mainz 05. Match information is also available via live text commentary. Both the radio broadcast and the text updates can be found at bayer04.de as well as on the Bayer 04 app.
Today's Black and Red birthday boy is Helmut Winklhofer who is 61 today. The player born in Lower Bavaria joined Leverkusen from Bayern Munich in 1982 and after three years and 98 Bundesliga appearances he returned to Munich and went on to win the German league title three times in succession and the DFB Cup with the German record champions. Bayer 04 wish Helmut many happy returns.
The Werkself need a win in their penultimate match of the season at RB Leipzig on Monday evening (18:00 CEST) to keep their hopes of third place alive until the final day. After Eintracht Frankfurt lost on Saturday, Roberto Pätzold's side can close the gap on their rivals to two points and leave it all to play for next Sunday.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 1-3 loss at VfB Stuttgart on Matchday 33 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...
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Down to fifth from fourth place despite taking an early lead: in the head-to-head for a Champions League spot, Bayer 04 were 1-0 up at VfB Stuttgart with just a minute played thanks to an Aleix Garcia strike, but ultimately lost 3-1 (2-1) to the more determined hosts. It meant the Swabians leapfrogged the Werkself in the Bundesliga table on the penultimate matchday.
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Today sees Bayer 04 go head-to-head with their next direct rivals in the race for Champions League qualification (kick-off 15:30 CEST). Opponents Stuttgart are currently fifth in the table, level on points with the Werkself but one place below them due to a three-goal inferior goal difference. The Black and Reds' record at Bad Cannstatt tells a clearer story: they've not lost at VfB for over 16 years. One important factor in securing what would be three crucial points away from home is Leverkusen's strength on the counter-attack. Whilst Stuttgart are also extremely dangerous going forward, they will be without their captain. Today’s matchday news.
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