The Werkself have gone out in all eleven knock-out rounds in Europe after losing the first leg at home. Hopefully that stat will change today.
The head-to-head favours Monaco: Bayer 04 have only won one of the seven previous matches against AS Monaco (2 draws, 4 defeats) – that was a 3-0 win in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League in 2016/17.
AS Monaco continued their run in Ligue 1 at the weekend. The 2-1 win at Stade Brest was the ninth league game unbeaten on the bounce (7 wins, 2 draws). Clement made five changes to the team that played in Leverkusen. Further information Monaco is in our lowdown on the next opponents.
UEFA has appointed the Spanish referee Alejandro Hernández fir the match in the principality. This will be the first Werkself game with the 40-year-old in charge. His assistants are José Naranjo and Diego Sanchez Rojo with Guillermo Cuadra Fernández the VAR official.
As ever, Werkself Radio is available for anyone unable to be at the game. The audio broadcast starts 30 minutes before kick-off with commentary provided by Cedric Pick and Niko Hartmann. The live text update service will also ensure that you can keep up to speed with the game. Both Werkself Radio and the live text updates can be found at bayer04.de as well as on the Bayer 04 app – get on board.
A podcast tip for all Bayer 04-Fans: Sporting managing director Simon Rolfes has recently been a guest on the podcast ‘Mehr als ein Spiel’. The podcast series launched in the summer of 2022 by the DFB foundations Sepp Herberger, Egidius Braun and the DFB cultural foundation is dedicated to community affairs, socio-political and cultural aspects of football. Here is the latest episode with Simon Rolfes!
The former Werkself player Ramon Menezes will act as the caretaker coach of the Brazil team for the international fixture against World Cup semi-finalists Morocco on 25 March. That was announced by the Brazil Football Association CBF. The U20 coach of the record South American winners of the World Cup played for Bayer 04 in the 1995/96 season under his name at the time of Ramon Hubner. He made 15 Bundesliga appearances. The Brazil FA parted company with national coach Tite after losing to Croatia in the World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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