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.
The meeting between fifth and sixth on Saturday afternoon (17 January, 15:30 CET) is a hard one to predict. While the Werkself can take confidence from their historic record at TSG Hoffenheim, the hosts are currently enjoying their second-best Bundesliga campaign and have lost just one of their last 10 games. Another good omen for Bayer 04: Daniel Schlager also refereed Leverkusen's last victory in Sinsheim (4-1). The Matchday News.
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At the end of the winter training camp in Portugal, the Bayer 04 Women convincingly mastered their friendly ahead of the start of the second half of the season. In the match against Swiss league leaders Servette FCCF, coach Roberto Pätzold's team won 3-0 at the Monte Gordo Sports Complex. Carlotta Wamser (4’), Vanessa Fudalla (18’) and Loreen Bender (53’) scored for Bayer 04, who have been preparing for the Rückrunde in the Algarve since last Saturday.
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The German Football League (DFL) has rescheduled the postponed fixture at Hamburger SV on Bundesliga matchday 17. The match, due to be played on Tuesday, has now been rescheduled for Wednesday, 4 March (kick-off: 20:30 CET).
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The Rückrunde is about to begin: The Werkself travel to TSG Hoffenheim on Saturday, 17 January (kick-off: 15:30 CET) on Bundesliga matchday 18. At the pre-match press conference on Friday lunchtime, head coach Kasper Hjulmand emphasised the double anticipation for the clash following Tuesday's postponement of the fixture at Hamburger SV. And he also talked about the tactical approach against an opponent on course for Champions League qualification.
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TSG Hoffenheim have had a tremendous season so far and are in absolute top form going into the new year. After another outstanding display against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Wednesday, TSG went above Bayer 04 in the table. On Saturday, 17 January (kick-off: 15:30 CET), coach Christian Ilzer's team will be looking to continue their run in the league against the Werkself. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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