Werder Bremen have only won one of their last eleven games against the Werkself (six draws, four defeats): in a 3-1 victory on Bundesliga matchday 26 in the 2018/19 season. The last time Werder won the fixture at home was in October 2016 (2-1) and since then they have not beaten Bayer 04 in four games on their own turf (two draws, two defeats).
Werkself midfielders Robert Andrich and Exequiel Palacios are back in the squad under head coach Xabi Alonso after missing the Europa League Round of 16 first leg against Ferencváros due to suspension. Holding midfielder Charles Aránguiz is again sidelined through injury.
Werkself player Andrich this week took over the annual patronage of the OSTERMANN Birkenberg soccer school supported by Sportbund Leverkusen e.V.
There was great frustration in the Werder camp last weekend after the 2-1 defeat away to FC Augsburg. The defeat being completely avoidable was the prevailing view for the Green and Whites. "We clearly beat ourselves," said captain Marco Friedl. Coach Ole Werner raised statistics as proof of this statement and they all favoured Werder Bremen: 22 to 9 shots on goal, 81% pass completion, 62% possession – but what use is that if the result is not right in the end. Two things particularly stand out in the error analysis: "Too many chances were squandered" (Mitchell Weiser) and "we weren’t alert enough in crucial situations" (Niklas Schmidt). More on personnel, performance and problems for Werder Bremen in the lowdown on our next opponents.
The German Football Association (DFB) has appointed Deniz Aytekin as the match referee for the game in Bremen. This will be the 35th game involving the Werkself with the 44 year-old in charge. Aytekin will be assisted by Christian Dietz and Eduard Beitinger with Pascal Müller in action as the VAR official.
As usual, Werkself Radio is available for anybody unable to be at today's game. The audio broadcast begins 30 minutes before kick-off with commentary provided by Cedric Pick and Niko Hartmann. In addition, the live text update service will keep you up-to-date to ensure you don't miss anything in the game. Both Werkself Radio and the live text updates can be found at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app – tune in.
Twelve Werkself players are in action with their national teams in the current international break. Some of them are playing in the UEFA Nations League quarter-finals, others in qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup. Read on for the blog on international fixtures involving Bayer 04 players.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen and the Hamburg tech start-up GIPEDO are revolutionising communication between clubs and their partners: Via a new partner portal, the GIPEDO workspace, animation advertising can in future be independently administrated by partners.
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A brilliant weekend for the Leverkusen eSports players at the VBL CC finals in Cologne ended without the deserved reward. After the first day of the tournament with only victories in the group phase, Marc and Sean Landwehr overcame last year's champions SC Paderborn 07 at the semi-final stage on Sunday – but then lost in the final to the now sole VBL CC record champions RB Leipzig. A review of the second day of the tournament in the VBL CC finals.
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Bayer 04 Women were convincingly beaten 4-0 by Bundesliga rivals Eintracht Frankfurt in a friendly on Saturday afternoon. Without a total of nine first-team players, coach Roberto Pätzold's side were outdone by the second-placed side in Westerburg.
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