
The match between the team led by head coach Gerardo Seoane and Porto will be refereed by Anthony Taylor. The 43-year-old match official has previously been in charge of one Werkself match – the 4-0 home win against Real Betis in the 2021/22 Europa League season on 4 November of last year. Taylor's assistant referees tonight are Gary Beswick and Lee Betts with Stuart Atwell acting as the VAR referee. Have a good game!
A perfect record: The Werkself have not lost a single of their six Champions League games against Portuguese teams. Bayer 04 have three wins and a draw against Sporting CP and one win and one draw against their city rivals Benfica. In addition, the Black and Reds have won both of the previous European games against Porto. In the 2019/20 season, the Portuguese side lost 2-1 away and 3-1 at home in the UEFA Europa League.
The Werkself are probably the only team able to boast such an impressive record against Porto. The Portuguese side have won seven of their eight home games against German teams in the Champions League and the other match was a draw. Porto have won all of their last five games against German teams: Schalke 04 (twice), Hamburg SV, Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig.
As usual on course in the league but without a point in the Champions League: The Portuguese side are presenting two faces in the different competitions. While last season's league champions and cup winners are as impressive as ever with six wins and one draw from the first eight matches, and have only conceded six goals, it only took two games in the current Champions League campaign before the Portuguese had conceded the same number of goals.
The Dragons are bottom of Group B after the 2-1 defeat in the opening game against Atletico Madrid and the 4-0 home defeat against Club Brugge and are now under pressure to get a result in the next game. Detailed further information on today's opponents from the north of Portugal can be found in our lowdown on the next opponents.
Anybody not in the away section at the Estádio do Dragão can follow the audio broadcast from Werkself Radio from 30 minutes before kick-off. Cedric Pick and Niko Hartmann will again provide the commentary for the match against Porto. You can also keep up-to-date with the action via the live text updates. Both the radio and text updates can be found at bayer04.de as well as on the Bayer 04 app.

Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 4-0 win at SGS Essen on the 24th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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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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After matchday 31 and the 2-1 derby win in Cologne, one thing is certain: Bayer 04 will at least compete in the UEFA Europa League in the coming 2026/27 campaign. But the Werkself want more. Looking at the race for Champions League qualification and the remaining three league fixtures, including against direct rivals, bayer04.de outlines the possible scenarios in the season run-in.
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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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