Kai Havertz and Jonathan Tah are back in the Germany squad. Talking at an online press conference, the Germany coach Joachim Löw announced his squad on Tuesday for Germany's Nations League games on 3 September (20.45 CET) against Spain in Stuttgart and on 6 September (20.45 CET) against Switzerland in Basel. The two internationals in September will be played behind closed doors.
The Austria Football Association announced their squad on Tuesday as well. Julian Baumgartlinger and Aleksandar Dragovic are included for the two forthcoming internationals against Norway (4 September) and Romania (7 September). Florian Wirtz was called up to the Germany U21 squad for the first time last week. The Germany youngsters play Moldova on 3 September and Belgium on 8 September. Wirtz will meet up with his new teammate Lennart Grill who signed for Bayer 04 from Kaiserslautern in the summer.
Tin Jedvaj and his Croatia teammates face two real clashes in the Nations League. That starts with the game against Portugal in Porto on 5 September and three days later there is the match in Paris against World Cup winners France (both kick-offs at 20.45 CET). Like Wirtz and Grill, Moussa Diaby with France and Panos Retsos with Greece are also set to play in European championship qualifiers with their U21 teams. Whether Lukas Hradecky and Joel Pohjanpalo play for Finland will become clear over the course of the week.
FIFA have relaxed the release obligations on clubs regarding international payers due to the coronavirus pandemic for the internationals in September (31 August to 8 September for the men and 14 to 22 September for the women). FIFA is reacting to the travel restrictions in Europe. Clubs are no longer obliged to release players under certain conditions – such as quarantine or self isolation measures of at least five days or complications arising through travel restrictions.
The streaming service DAZN and Amazon Prime will broadcast the Friday and Monday games in the forthcoming 2020/21 season plus five Sunday matches in the Bundesliga. The package also includes four play-off matches and the Supercup. The broadcasting rights were still unclear last season. Eurosport did buy the rights for another season but cancelled with the DFL due to the coronavirus pandemic. The DFL then reached agreement with DAZN. The rights are again with Eurosport for the coming season but they have been passed on via licences to the two streaming portals.
In our new YouTube format of "Ready, Steady, Go", Werkself players are given the beginning of sentences. Their job is then to complete the sentences. First up is Kevin Volland. As usual, fun and laughter are guaranteed. Click HERE for the video.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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