Thanks to an exemption by the City of Hamburg and the neighbouring local authorities, the four semi-finalists in the Hamburg Association Cup were determined at the weekend. The two North Regional League sides, Eintracht Norderstedt and Jonathan Tah's former club Altona 93 now face each other on Sunday, 16 August. The meeting of the two Oberliga teams SV Rugenbergen and TSV Sasel is an hour later. A limited number of spectators are permitted at both matches.
The winner of the Hamburg Cup final, to be played on 22 August (kick-off: 14.45 CEST) as part of the Amateurs finals day, will be up against Lars Bender and Co. in the first round of the DFB Cup (11 to 14 September).
On 1 August, Bayer 04 released a 50-minute film to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Kai Havertz being at the club. This in-house production includes Germany teammate Tony Kroos, friend and former teammate Julian Brandt, Leverkusen's sporting director Simon Rolfes, head coach Peter Bosz and the two Bayer 04 managing directors Fernando Carro and Rudi Völler looking back at special moments with and by the prodigy. 'Kai – the Havertz Story | 10 years at Bayer 04 Leverkusen’ appears to have gone down well with fans and friends of the beautiful game. The film has had 500,000 hits on the Bayer 04 YouTube channel in less than two weeks.
There are not just impressive numbers on the video platform YouTube. Bayer 04 currently has 996,000 followers on Instagram – the magical million mark should soon be reached. The club from Leverkusen will be the third German team to achieve that number following on from Bayer Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
Until 1970, the German Football Association (DFB) banned women and girls from playing football in Germany. That is now 50 years ago; a lot has changed since then. On Sunday, 16 August (18.30 CEST), the ARD Sportschau is broadcasting a report on that anniversary with the title, ‘Der größte Gegner ist das Klischee – 50 Jahre Frauenfußball’ ('The cliché is the biggest opponent – 50 years of women's football'). Interviewees include Bayer 04 player Jessica Wich (“Women now just want to do that they want and what makes them happy.”) and former Leverkusen player Merle Barth, who signed for Turbine Potsdam in the summer.
Bayer 04 remained unbeaten in the first 14 league games under Klaus Toppmöller, who took over the managerial hot seat at the Werkself in the summer of 2001. The Werkself were even top of the league at the halfway stage but the 2001/02 season ended with three runner’s up spots in the Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB Cup. Toppmöller coached the Black and Reds for 18 months. The Coach of the Year 2002, who last managed in 2008, celebrates his 69th birthday. Bayer 04 wish Klaus many happy returns!
In their third friendly of this pre-season, Bayer 04 played on home soil for the first time – and won there too! The Werkself claimed a comfortable 4-0 victory against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion. Jeanuel Belocian (9’) and Nathan Tella (42’) gave a dominant Leverkusen a 2-0 lead at the break, which Afonso Moreira (51’) and Christian Kofane (53’) doubled after the break. Among the many second-half substitutions was Patrik Schick, who made his first friendly appearance of the summer.
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The Werkself are finally back. On Saturday 8 August, Bayer 04 kick off the 2026/27 campaign with their opening match. But there’s far more than just a double-header in store for Werkself supporters. True to the motto ‘One day. Two teams. One club’, the BayArena and the Ulrich Haberland Stadium will be transformed into a world of excitement.
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The Werkself continue their 2026/27 pre-season preparations with their third friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion on Wednesday 29 July (kick-off 15:00 CEST). Werkself-TV is broadcasting the match live and in full in a stream from 14:50 CEST...
After the children from the Bayer 04 Football Academy grilled Janis Blaswich and Simeon Rapsch last week, another group of 20 young Werkself fans gathered at the BayArena press conference room on Tuesday afternoon, 28 July . This time, the kids directed their questions at Tim Oermann and Jonah Berghoff. Defender Oermann raved about his school days, whilst talented midfielder Berghoff revealed to the young footballers, amongst other things, who his favourite player is – and he is also at Bayer 04. To round things off, the pair naturally obliged with all requests for autographs and selfies.
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Bayer 04 are back on the pitch. Following the first training sessions, the Werkself play the first pre-season friendly on Saturday, July 18. The match against Oberliga club Sportfreunde Baumberg kicks off at 15:30 CEST in Monheim am Rhein. Fans unable to attend the match can watch head coach Carles Martínez’s first game in charge for free via a livestream at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app, as well as on Werkself.tv (exclusively for members). Just log on and watch the games live. All the other Werkself preseason friendlies leading up to the 2026/27 season will also be streamed live for free.
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