Five goals in three Bundesliga games in October – also thanks to this impressive goals tally, Lucas Alario has been nominated for the October Player of the Month. The following players have been nominated in addition to the Argentinian: Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Müller (both FC Bayern), Matheus Cunha (Hertha Berlin), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund) and Angelino (RB Leipzig).
The official award is presented each month by the DFL in cooperation with EA SPORTS, it is awarded according to a two-stage process where both the individual performance data of the players and the opinions of pundits and fans are considered. You can vote for Alario HERE!
The current international break and associated weekend without training or matches comes at just the right time for Daley Sinkgraven. The girlfriend of the Dutch defender has given birth to a son called Dyce. The left-back shortly after the birth: “We are very proud. The nights are rather short at the moment – but that’s obviously wonderful.” Daley and his partner are continuing the baby boom at Bayer 04. Moussa Diaby, Leon Bailey, Patrik Schick, goalkeeping coach David Thiel and, for the second time, Kerem Demirbay plus former Leverkusen player Kevin Volland have all recently become fathers.
The Germany coach appears to like Black and Red: Since taking the job in 2006, Jogi Löw has called up 16 players who were at the Werkself when they made their debut for Germany. The most recent member of this group is Nadiem Amiri who played on Wednesday night in the 1-0 win in the friendly against the Czech Republic. The 24-year-old started his international career in the 2-2 draw in a friendly against Argentina on 9 October. Löw first picked Leverkusen players in the spring of 2007 – and three in one go. The coach from the Black Forest called up a Werkself trio of Simon Rolfes, Stefan Kießling and Gonzalo Castro. All three Leverkusen players made their debuts for Germany in a friendly against Denmark on 28 March of that year.
These players have made their debut for Germany while under the Bayer Cross (in chronological order): Simon Rolfes, Stefan Kießling, Gonzalo Castro, René Adler, Toni Kroos, Stefan Reinartz, Lars Bender, Sidney Sam, Philipp Wollscheid, Karim Bellarabi, Jonathan Tah, Bernd Leno, Julian Brandt, Benjamin Henrichs, Kai Havertz and Nadiem Amiri.
On Thursday night, 12 November, Lennart Grill starts the final international break of the year: The Leverkusen player is with the Germany U21s for the game against Slovenia in Braunschweig (kick-off: 18.15 CET). ProSieben MAXX are broadcasting the Euro U21 qualifier live on free TV.
Florian Wirtz has also been called up for the U21s by coach Stefan Kuntz but will not play against Slovenia. The 17-year-old “will not be overworked by agreement between Stefan Kuntz and Peter Bosz and is therefore not in the squad,” the DFB announced.
Moussa Diaby is also playing in the Euro qualifiers on Thursday with the 21-year-old in the France team away to Liechtenstein (kick-off: 20.45 CET). Also in action this evening: Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso. The central defender and his teammates play Malawi in an Africa Cup qualifier with the kick-off at 19.00 CET.
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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