Head coach Gerardo Seoane was able to welcome Odilon Kossounou back to the squad on Tuesday. The central defender headed home before the turn of the year to take part in the Africa Couple Nations with Ivory Coast. The tournament ended for the Ivorians last week with a 1-0 defeat against Egypt in the Round of 16. That means Kossounou is available for the match against BVB.
Paulinho has also returned to full training in the shadow of the BayArena. The Brazilian forward was sidelined after testing positive for Covid-19 and he is now being gradually brought back up to speed.
Julian Baumgartlinger (after knee injury) and Daley Sinkgraven (after muscle injury) were involved with some of the team training on Tuesday while Exequiel Palacios continues to be sidelined due to back problems. .
A few days before the start of the second half of the season in the FLYERALARM Women's Bundesliga, the coaches and captains of the twelve clubs have voted for their four best players in six different categories. In the most improved category, there was a player from the Bayer 04 squad in Verena Wieder. The 21-year-old was in third place in the rankings, with 18.2% of all the votes, which she shared with Maximiliane Rall (Bayern Munich). Wieder joined Leverkusen from SC Freiburg in the summer of 2020 and last season scored four league goals for the Black and Reds. Carry on, Verena.
With the exception of Wendell (250 games), no other Brazilian player has made more appearances for Bayer 04: Juan, signed from flamingo Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 2002, played 176 times for the Black and Reds (16 goals). After five years he moved on to AS Roma before returning to Brazil in 2019 where he ended his playing career. Juan today celebrates his 43rd birthday – many happy returns.
Bayer 04 congratulates Sebastian Boenisch on his 35th birthday. The Polish left-back joined the Werkself in November 2012 and he went on to play 76 times (3 goals, 12 assists) for Bayer 04 in four years. After joining other clubs, mainly in Austria, Boenisch ended his playing career in the summer of 2020. Many happy returns and the best of health for the year ahead too.
A week after the 2-0 win at AS Roma in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League semi-final, the return match takes place tonight, Thursday 9 May (21:00 CEST), at the BayArena. Before that, a fan fest organised by Nordkurve12 will be on throughout the day. All the info is in the Matchday News.
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Next attempt at reaching the 31-point mark: on the penultimate matchday of the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga, Bayer 04 can top their points tally from last season against MSV Duisburg. If coach Robert de Pauw's side claim victory in their final away game of the campaign on Saturday (14:00 CEST), last year's haul would be bettered by one point.
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Bayer 04 have the final of the UEFA Europa League firmly in their sights as they prepare to host Roma at a sold-out BayArena for the semi-final second leg on Thursday (kick-off: 9pm CEST). The Werkself have a 2-0 lead from last week’s first leg in Rome and are well placed to reach a first European final in over 20 years. Ahead of the return fixture, head coach Xabi Alonso and defender Edmond Tapsoba spoke at the club’s press conference on Wednesday and gave a warning about a motivated opponent.
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Roma were impressive for long periods of their Serie A game against Juventus at the weekend, and Daniele De Rossi’s team will again want to play with confidence despite facing a 2-0 deficit as they come to the BayArena to take on the Werkself in Thursday’s UEFA Europa League semi-final second leg.
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Michael Ballack will represent the Bayer 04 as DFB Cup ambassador for the upcoming final against Kaiserslautern. The former midfielder will be the official representative of the Bundesliga champions at the cup handover organised by the German FA (DFB) in Berlin on 13 May and at the showpiece at the Olympiastadion on 25 May.
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