FC Eintracht Norderstedt or TSV Sasel – one of these two Hamburg amateur clubs can look forward to a big match against Bayer 04 after they qualified for the Hamburg association cup final on Sunday. That was the outcome of the draw for the first round of the DFB Cup (11-14 September) held on 26 July.
Regional League Norderstedt beat league rivals Altona 93, the former club of Jonathan Tah, 3-2 at their own ground. After going behind early on (2’), ‘EN’ turned the game round. After Altona levelled the scores at 2-2 (48’), Norderstedt were able to respond in the middle of the second half and score the winner on 68 minutes to ensure progress to the cup final. Sasel followed suit an hour later and were also able to celebrate going through to the final with a 3-0 away win at fellow Oberliga rivals SV Rugenbergen.
The Hamburg cup final will be part of an amateurs’ finals day on , 22 August (kick-off: 14.45 CEST/live on ARD), at the stadium in the Wolfgang Meyer sports complex in Hamburg-Stellingen.
Moving on to the Champions League: Leverkusen’s Bundesliga rivals RB Leipzig are in the semi-finals of Europe’s elite club competition thanks to a 2-1 win against Atlético Madrid. Former Werkself player Kevin Kampl played the full 90 minutes against the Spaniards. The Slovenian spent eleven years in the youth section at Bayer 04, and then went on to play for RB Salzburg and Borussia Dortmund before returning to Leverkusen in 2015 for two years. Kampl has been at Leipzig for the past three years – and he has been reunited with Markus Krösche in Saxony. The former Werkself assistant coach (July 2015 to March 2017 under Roger Schmidt) was appointed sporting director at RB Leipzig in the summer of 2019.
Kampl, Krösche and Co. face the top French side Paris Saint Germain on Tuesday (kick-off: 21.00 CET) in Portugal’s capital Lisbon, and the second semi-final on Wednesday involves Bayern Munich and Olympique Lyon (21.00 CET).
Until the summer of this year, Helmut Jungheim was the head of the youth academy at Bayer Leverkusen. Since 1 August, he has been in charge of the Bayer 04 coaches academy. Jungheim celebrates his 63rd birthday today (Monday); Bayer 04 wish him many happy returns!
Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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The next footballing highlight is just around the corner: the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 23rd edition of the tournament, will be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico and feature 48 teams for the first time. Bayer04.de has all the latest on the Werkself players called up to represent their countries.
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While the majority of the Bayer 04 Women are enjoying their summer break, nine Werkself players will be on duty for their national teams in the coming days. Three of them are competing for a place at the World Cup, while six are involved in two friendlies with the Germany U23 team.
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