The Werkself trained at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium in bright sunshine. Under the eyes of head coach Peter Bosz and his fellow coaches, Lars Bender and Co. were in high spirits as they completed the final pre-match training session ahead of the home game against Slavia Prague on Thursday 10 December (kick-off: 18.55 CET/live on DAZN and Werks11 Radio). Once again, that included U19 players Emrehan Gedikli and Cem-Tuna Türkmen plus Samed Onur. Lucas Alario also joined his teammates in training after being sidelined through injury.
Jindrich Trpisovsky’s first visit to the BayArena took him straight to the top table in the media centre. At the press conference, the Slavia Prague head coach emphasised his players are happy at being one of very few Czech teams playing to win the group on the European stage. Trpisovsky added: “But we are also happy to play without pressure as we are certain of going through to the next round.”
It remains to be seen which starting line-up the 44-year-old will opt for against the Werkself. “That depends on which players are match fit. A number of them picked up knocks in the derby,” said Trpisovsky. His team beat Sparta 3-0 in the Prague derby on Sunday.
Just days after the big game in the Czech capital, the next top match awaits, this time on the European stage. And head coach Trpisovsky knows what his team has to expect against Bayer 04. “It will be a huge challenge, they are a team full of running,” explained Trpisovsky. “But we are really looking forward to tomorrow’s game.”
UEFA has appointed Greek referee Anastasios Sidiropoulos for the home game against Slavia Prague. The 41-year-old has already refereed games involving Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Schalke 04. Sidiropoulos has never been in charge of a Werkself game before. Polychronis Kostaras and Lazaros Dimitriadis are the assistant referees at the BayArena. VAR is only in use in the knockout rounds in the Europa League.
Julian Baumgartlinger will be on the pitch on Thursday night. The stalwart is in top form at the moment and he has found the back of the net twice recently. ‘Baumi’s’ ball-winning ability has also been outstanding this term. According to Opta data, the captain of the Austria team has won 75 per cent of challenges in the first ten Bundesliga games. That makes the 32-year-old the best ball winner in the league.
Bayer 04 have been a partner in the network of the community foundation Bürgerstiftung Leverkusen since 2017. The community group launched the ‘Sterntaler’ project to combat child and old-age poverty. In co-operation with the city council, daycare centres and aged persons homes have been asked to make stars with the wishes of the children and the senior citizens. The Christmas stars were then distributed to network partners like Bayer 04 who provide presents for the beneficiaries.
This campaign has become established over recent years. This year, the staff and Werkself players have fulfilled the wishes of over 130 children and senior citizens.
Players and members of staff have provided their favourite recipes in the 120-page Bayer 04 cookbook. The Black and Red collection has proved to be very popular with the fans – over 1,700 copies have been sold in a very short space of time. There are only a limited number left. All the profits go the Tafel Leverkusen charity and a cheque for the full amount will be presented on 18 December.
Moreover: Brian the Lion has tried out a suitable recipe for the festive season. Click HERE for the video.
What makes Jonathan Tah tick? Werkself fans can find that out now on DAZN. The streaming service has followed the Germany international for eight months; the outcome is a three-part documentary called “Jona 99 – Mehr Sein als Schein.” Tah explains: “Through the insights provided by the documentary, I’d like to show what it means to me to continue to develop and work on it everyday to be the best version of myself in football and beyond.” All the episodes are available on demand on DAZN and the DAZN YouTube channel from 7 December.
He left his home country of Rumania for the Bundesliga at the age of 21: In the summer of 1990, Ioan Lupescu signed for Bayer 04 from FC Dinamo Bucharest. The central midfielder played for the Werkself for six years and he won the DFB Cup with Leverkusen in 1993; Lupescu was in the starting line-up for the final at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin against the Hertha Berlin Reserves.
After winning the double in Qatar with Al-Sadd SC, the Rumanian ended his playing career in 2003 before going on to coach two Rumanian top-flight clubs. Lupescu is now the UEFA technical director. The former Werkself player was 52 on Wednesday. Bayer 04 wish Ioan: Many happy returns.
It took exactly 60 minutes for the Werkself to take the lead through a perfectly finished counter-attack by Patrik Schick in the first leg of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off at Olympiacos. Referring to the meeting in the league phase and the initially squandered opportunities, coach Kasper Hjulmand said afterwards: "I thought: 'Oh no, déjà-vu.'" But after the opening goal, it took just 144 seconds for the Czech to spark more wild celebrations among those in black and red in the Greek cauldron, when Schick nodded in Alejandro Grimaldo's corner. Much to the delight of the Bayer 04 fans, his teammates and his coach, who had warm words for the striker in the aftermath. The Werkself Review.
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Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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