For the first time since the introduction of the Champions League in 1992 next season will see five German teams in Europe's premier club competition. In addition to the Werkself, champions Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig plus Eintracht Frankfurt as Europa League winners have qualified for the top European tournament.
26 of the 32 teams have already qualified. The remaining six will be decided from the end of June to August in the qualifying matches. The draw for the group stage will follow on 25 August.
The Werkself join Borussia Dortmund in pot 3 based on the UEFA coefficients and are therefore unable to play RB Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Inter Milan, Napoli and Sporting Lisbon as they are in the same pot. In contrast, possible opponents include Real Madrid, Manchester City, AC Milan, Paris St Germain, Porto (all in pot 1), Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Tottenham Hotspur (all in pot 2) plus Liverpool and Ajax (both pot 1 or pot 2).
In the group stage, three German clubs will play on Tuesdays and two on Wednesdays. The first matchday is on 6/7 September. The top match on a Tuesday next season will be shown on the Amazon Prime Video streaming platform. All other matches are available via the streaming provider DAZN. Highlights on terrestrial TV will be shown as usual on ZDF – on Wednesdays from 23.15 CEST.
Which Bayer 04 player particularly stands out this season? Can last year's winner Florian Wirtz retain his title? The top eleven scorers and providers in the Bundesliga include three Werkself players: Leverkusen's top goalscorer Patrik Schick (24 goals, 4 assists), winger Moussa Diaby(13 goals, 12 assists) and youngster Florian Wirtz (7 goals, 11 assists). Robert Andrich or Jeremie Frimpong could also be in the running.
Black and Red fans still have a chance to choose who most deserves the title of Player of the Season 2021/22. The vote is open until Sunday 5 June.
Bayer 04 Club members have the chance to win some great prizes:
Main prize:
Other prizes:
Click HERE to vote and for further information
The flags at the Bayer Leverkusen flying club are at half mast. An LEC sports aircraft crashed in Croatia on Sunday 29 May. The pilot was a member of the Leverkusen club and he was killed in the accident as were three passengers. Bayer 04 mourns the victims and our thoughts are with their families and friends.
Former Werkself player Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez is 34 today. Bayer 04 congratulate him and happily remember his time under the Bayer Cross. The Mexican record goalscorer played for Bayer 04 from 2015 to 2017 and he conquered the hearts of the Black and Red fans up front. Chicharito scored 28 times in 54 games. After his time at Leverkusen, Chicha joined West Ham United in the Premier League. The crowd favourite has played for Los Angeles Galaxy since 2020. There he scored 26 goals in 49 games.
You can again watch one of his many impressive feats HERE. Happy Birthday.
In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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