He knows what makes the Black and Yellows tick: Kerem Demirbay, under the Bayer Cross for two years, spent most of his youth career at BVB. Ahead of the top match between the Werkself and Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, 11 September (kick-off: 15.30 CEST), the 28-year-old also talked about which game for BVB he remembers best. What Demirbay expects from the visitors and what his targets are for the game at the BayArena, can be found on the brand new Bayer 04 app. You can download it HERE.
Like several of their teammates at the start of the week, Florian Wirtz and Panos Retsos have ended their international duty. Youngster Wirtz played for Germany against Iceland. The team under head coach Hansi Flick mastered their challenge comfortably with a 4-0 win.
The visitors, with Bayer 04 homegrown talent Kai Havertz (now at Chelsea) coming on at the start of the second half, did not concede for the third game in succession. The 18-year-old Wirtz again came off the bench, as in the previous two games, this time replacing Leon Goretzka on 80 minutes.
Like Germany, Greece were winners in the third and final game in the current international break. The match in Athens against Sweden ended in a 2-1 victory. Werkself central defender Panos Retsos was on the subs bench for the full 90 minutes.
Three Black and Red players are in action in the early hours of Friday morning and that marks the end of the international break from a Bayer 04 perspective – all in the South American World Cup qualifiers. At 0.30 CEST, Ecuador with Werkself new signing Piero Hincapie are away to Uruguay, and Charles Aránguiz and Chile face Colombia half an hour later. From 1.30 CEST, Argentina with Exequiel Palacios have a home game in Buenos Aires against Bolivia. Good luck, lads!
Oliver Kahn, the CEO at Bayern Munich, will represent the champions of Germany on the board of the European Club Association. The 52-year-old will succeed Michael Gerlinger (Legal director at FC Bayern) in November. Kahn will join Fernando Carro, the Bayer 04 CEO, on the ECA board. The third Bundesliga representative on the board is Hans-Joachim Watzke of Borussia Dortmund.
These numbers inspire confidence of full stadiums in the Bundesliga again soon: Just 0.000006 per cent of football fans have tested positive for Covid-19 since the return of crowds at games. In 73 games with more than 900,000 tickets sold in the Bundesliga, the second division and the Supercup there were only six cases of coronavirus from contract tracing. In addition: None of the clubs are aware of any of the six people infecting others at a stadium.
“Although he plays for our rivals Leverkusen, somebody like Moussa Diaby creates great joy with his play.” These words were chosen by Max Eberl, sporting director at Borussia Mönchengladbach, in a recent interview with Sport Bild in response to the question of which Bundesliga players excite him at the moment.”
In the clash with Eberl’s Foals (4-0), the 22-year-old, who was recently called up to the France squad for the first time, scored the third goal. Diaby has scored two goals and provided one assist in the first three matchdays.
Bayern Munich come to the BayArena this Saturday with an 11-point lead in the Bundesliga as they look to take a step closer to the title. As imperious as they may seem, a weakness has emerged of late that the Werkself proved they can exploit in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the Champions League. Leverkusen are also looking to make it four Bundesliga home games unbeaten against the Bavarians. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the 15:30 CET kick-off in our matchday news.
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Another home game, another top opponent - another marker? Three days after their convincing performance in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg, Bayer 04 continue their Bundesliga campaign with an equally high-calibre fixture. Matchday 26 sees league leaders Bayern Munich visit the sold-out BayArena. Ahead of the clash, head coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke about a comparison between Arsenal and the Bavarians, Bayern's high-scoring performance in Europe's premier club competition and a return to the squad for one Werkself player.
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High spirits and previously untold stories: Around 100 Bayer 04 fans packed the Schwadbud fan pub in the east stand of the BayArena on Thursday evening to be there in person for the first instalment of the new series of events entitled “Rudi lädt ein” (Rudi invites you). They listened intently as long-serving Werkself players Gonzalo Castro and Stefan Kießling chatted with record appearance-maker Rüdiger Vollborn and presenter and stadium announcer Tobias Ufer about their many years together at the club, shared amusing anecdotes and revealed dressing room secrets. Anyone who missed the premiere can already look forward to the second instalment – on 12 May, Rudi will be testing the expert knowledge of Bayer 04 fans during a quiz night.
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The Bundesliga home game against VfL Wolfsburg in the first half of the season was one of those classic ‘days to forget’ for Bayer 04 Women. It started with goalkeeper Charlotte Voll being shown a red card in the first minute of the game, and following a further sending-off, coach Roberto Pätzold's 9-women side ended up losing 5-1 to last season's runners-up. At 18.30 CET on Sunday, they'll have the chance to exact revenge at the AOK Stadium - and pick up valuable points in the race for third place.
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They're well on their way to becoming German champions for the 35th time and once again proved their incredible class in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday. This Saturday, 14 March (kick-off: 15.30 CET), Bayern Munich will be the visitors to the BayArena. It'll be a meeting of the two Bundesliga teams with the most dominant styles of play. A look at our opponents shows the visitors from the Bavarian capital have many strengths - but are also vulnerable.
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