Match action returns this week. The Werkself have not had a long break. But that will not diminish the anticipation for the Europa League, which restarts this week. All was quiet at the BayArena on Monday but Peter Bosz will welcome his players back to the training ground on Tuesday and Wednesday. Ahead of the final pre-match training session before the Rangers game on Wednesday, Peter Bosz and a Werkself player will field questions from journalists in a virtual press conference.
It’s 144 days since the Round of 16 first leg away to Glasgow Rangers. All the same: Thanks to the 3-1 win at Ibrox Stadium, the Werkself are in a good position to go through to the knockout tournament. The Bosz team would face either Inter Milan or Getafe in the quarter-finals (Monday, 10 August, 21.00). Moreover: A clash with another German team is possible in the semi-finals – provided the Werkself, VfL Wolfsburg (1-2 in first leg against Shakhtar Donetsk) and Eintracht Frankfurt (0-3 in first leg against FC Basel) are still in the competition.
Click HERE to download Europa League tournament schedule.
The day after the second leg against Rangers, the Bundesliga will be the focus again on Friday: The German Football League (DFL) will publish the fixture list for the 2020/21 season. At noon CET, the Werkself will find out their opposition for the first match of the new league campaign as well as the opponents for the other matchdays. bayer04.de will report straight after publication of the results.
The Bayer 04 Women have started preparing for the new season. Before working with the ball, Monday and Tuesday brings performance test at the BayArena. Different exercises will be carried out to check speed, balance and the capacity of the players’ cardiovascular systems on the speed court, in the Werkstatt as well as next to the BayArena pitch. The squad is split in two for the tests – one half on Monday and the other half on Tuesday.
Bayer 04 extended their social media presence last Friday with the official launch of the new TikTok channel. At the launch, there was – initially exclusively on the platform – the first photos of the new red away kit. Moussa Diaby pulled on the new shirt and then disappeared in a flash that attracted 200,000 views to mark an outstanding start. Bayer 04 sees TikTok providing great entertainment on the platform and attraction to a very young target audience without losing sight of providing information. And you can join in too: You can see the videos using the handle @bayer04 or by visiting www.tiktok.com/@bayer04.
Talking about videos. Make yourself comfortable, log onto YouTube and enjoy the film: ‘KAI – the Havertz story | 10 years at Bayer 04 Leverkusen’ has been on the Bayer 04 YouTube channel since Saturday. To mark his ten years at the club, the Werkself have dedicated a 50-minute documentary to the Bundesliga player with 118 appearances under his belt and portrayed the impressive development from a talented youngster from Mariadorf to a top player highly rated at home and abroad. Click HERE for the film.
In the summer of 1998, José Roberto da Silva Júnior – Zé Roberto for short – joined the Werkself from Real Madrid. Exactly 22 years ago, on 3 August 1998, he made his first appearance for the Black and Reds. The Brazilian was brought on by coach Christoph Daum in place of Zoran Mamic on 61 minutes in a cup tie against Bayern Munich. He went on to make another 149 appearances for Bayer 04 in the next four years before leaving the Werkself to join FC Bayern.
After their first win on matchday 6 in the UCL league phase, Olympiacos are still in with a good chance of reaching the play-offs in the UEFA Champions League. The 2024 UEFA Conference League winners will be looking to go one better in their home match against Bayer 04 this Tuesday, 20 January (kick-off: 21:00 CET), but their stop scorer is unavailable. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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Panagiotis, known as Panos, Retsos wore the Bayer 04 jersey for three years. Including his loan spells, he was under contract with the Werkself for a total of four and a half years. "It's a very special club for me," said the 27-year-old, who returned to his boyhood club Olympiacos in 2022, in an interview with bayer04.de. The former Leverkusen man is now captain and a first choice for the Werkself's next opponents in the UEFA Champions League. Ahead of the clash on Tuesday night, 20 January (kick-off: 21:00 CET), Retsos talks about his fond memories of his time in Leverkusen and the imminent reunion with some of his former team-mates. He also talks about who brought him to Leverkusen and why he likes getting older.
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Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without goalkeeper Mark Flekken and forward Nathan Tella for the time being.
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After a week in the Algarve, the Bayer 04 Women returned home on Saturday afternoon. The Werkself had six training sessions, two friendlies and a lot of time together as a team. Roberto Pätzold's team will be back in action in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga next Friday for the start of matchday 15.
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