
Tonight's referee is the Frenchman Clement Turpin. This will be the second time the 40-year-old has been in charge of a game involving the Werkself. Turpin will have the support of his fellow countrymen Nicolas Danos and Cyril Gringore as assistant referees and Jerome Brisard is the VAR referee. Have a good game.
The Werkself have shown their ability to penetrate recently when the opponent has been Atlético Madrid: Leverkusen have won the last two Champions League matches against the Spanish side with both wins coming at home. The Rojiblancos are unbeaten against the Black and Reds in four European matches in Madrid – with two wins plus two draws from meetings in the Europa League and the Champions League.
The Spaniards have an even better record against German teams: Atlético Madrid have gone unbeaten in European competition in the last 11 home games against German clubs (eight wins, three draws). Borussia Dortmund were the last team to win in Madrid back in October 1996. In those eleven games, Atletico have only conceded four goals and never more than one per game. So the Spaniards are solid as ever at the back but less impressive up front recently: The Rojiblancos have not scored in the last three Champions League games. The last time they went four games without scoring in this competition was before Diego Simeone took the helm as head coach. That was between March and October 2009 when Abel Resino was in the dugout.
Just over four weeks ago, the two teams meeting in the first match between the Werkself and Atlético Madrid were not performing at the start of their league campaigns as expected. The Spaniards have made amends and are now again on top form: The Rojiblancos have picked up 13 out of a possible 15 points in La Liga and did not lose a single game in the league in October. The Madrid side have gradually moved up the table and are now the main pursuers of the two big clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona. More on the current form and line-up of the Spanish side can be found in our update on our next opponents.
Anyone unable to be at the game tonight can tune into Werkself Radio 30 minutes before kick-off. Cedric Pick is your commentator for the action in Madrid. There are also live text updates to keep you up-to-date with the match. Both Werkself Radio and the text updates can be found at bayer04.de as well as on the Bayer 04 app.

The German Football League (DFL) has announced the three candidates for the title of Bundesliga Rookie of the Month for January. That includes Werkself player Jarell Quansah. Fans of Bayer 04 can vote for their favourite on the Bundesliga app from now until Thursday, 5 January (23:59 CET).
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As in the past two years, the Werkself are aiming to come out on top in the DFB Pokal quarter-finals on Tuesday night, 3 February (kick-off: 20:45 CET). With eleven home games in a row without defeat against the Kiezkicker, the Black and Reds go into the floodlit match in confident mood. But the Pokal, as is often said, has its own magic and the team from the Millerntor has much more to offer than the current 17th place in the Bundesliga would suggest. After all, Bayer 04 are one of the big German teams the combative Hamburgers have already made life difficult for this season. The matchday news.
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The Leverkusen eSports team picked up valuable points and made up ground in the overall table with a top four finish in the offline round in Showdown 4 in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26. In the round of 16, Showdown 1 winners Bayer 04 defeated the unbeaten runners-up in the previous round, VfL Bochum, in a thrilling penalty shoot-out. The Landwehr cousins, themselves the current club runners-up, then beat the current club champions and Showdown 3 winners RB Leipzig. It was not until the semi-finals that they lost out to the eventual showdown winners Borussia Mönchengladbach.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have strengthened the goalkeeper position for the second half of the season. Germany keeper Rafaela Borggräfe has joined the Werkself on loan from English FA Women's Super League (WSL) club Liverpool until the end of the season.
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Bayer 04 have agreed a loan move for U19s striker Ken Izekor to join Bundesliga 2 club Eintracht Braunschweig on loan for the rest of the 2025/26 season.
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