Croatia, with Tin Jedvaj crossing his fingers for his team-mates in Leverkusen, only needed a goalless draw in the second leg in Piraeus following their 4-1 victory in Thursday’s meeting in Zagreb. In contrast to the first match, Michael Skibbe started Panos Retsos and he played the full 90 minutes at left back. Greece worked hard but were ineffective up front. And when substitute Demitris Pelkas put the ball into the back of the net with ten minutes to play the goal was ruled out by the referee for an offside in the build-up.
There were also no goals in the encounter between Switzerland and Northern Ireland in the cauldron of St. Jakob Park in Basel. That did not affect the huge joy of Admir Mehmedi, brought off the bench on the hour mark, as Switzerland only needed to keep a clean sheet to qualify for the World Cup following the 1-0 win in the first leg in Northern Ireland. However, the hosts were kept on their toes to the final minute as they coped with a courageous fight from the Northern Irish and a difficult surface to play on. Ricardo Rodriguez was again the man of the match, after scoring the only goal of the game in the first leg, when he saved a shot off the line with goalkeeper Yann Sommer already beaten.
Admir Mehmedi, Tin Jedvaj, Lucas Alario as a possible for the Argentina squad plus the Germany players at the Werkself will have their eyes on Moscow on 1 December: The draw for the groups at the 2018 World Cup will be held at the Kremlin.
Bosnia U19 international Kerim Alajbegovic is moving from Bayer 04 Leverkusen's youth set-up to Red Bull Salzburg. The talented attacking midfielder has signed a long-term contract with the Austrian club. At the same time, the works club secured a buy-back option for the 17-year-old, who was one of the mainstays of the Leverkusen U19s.
Show moreThe Werkself are away to Premier League club Chelsea in the final pre-season friendly. The game against the current holders of the UEFA Conference League is on Friday, 8 August at Stamford Bridge with the kick-off at 20:00 CEST. Read on for information on ticket sales.
Show moreThe Werkself are away to Dutch top-flight club Fortuna Sittard in the third pre-season friendly. The match is on Friday, 1 August at the Fortuna Sittard stadium with the kick-off at 19:00 CEST. Read on for information on ticket sales.
Show moreThe Werkself are away to VfL Bochum in the second pre-season friendly. The match is on Sunday, 27 July at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion with the kick-off at 18:00 CEST. Read on for the latest information on ticket sales.
Show more