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.
This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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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 as he worked 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 personalised 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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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
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