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!
Today brings the first match of the season for the Werkself. Bayer 04 kick off the 2026/27 campaign today, Saturday 22 August, at 13:00 CEST with a first-round DFB Pokal tie away to third-tier side SV Wehen Wiesbaden. The 3,700 travelling fans can not only look forward to what will hopefully be a successful start to the season, but also now organise their journeys to Black and Reds games even more easily via the WERKSELFgo car-share platform. Meanwhile, following two defeats at the start of the league season, SV Wehen are hoping to spring a surprise in the DFB Pokal tie. Today’s matchday news.
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Carolin Simon is the new captain of the Bayer 04 women’s team. The full-back, who joined from Bayern Munich in the summer, will take over the captain’s armband for the 2026/27 season. Simon returned to Leverkusen in the summer after ten years away. The 33-year-old succeeds goalkeeper Friederike Repohl, who retired at the end of last season.
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Bayer 04 start the 2026/27 season away to third-division side SV Wehen Wiesbaden. Ahead of the DFB Pokal tie on Saturday 22 August (kick-off: 13:00 CEST), head coach Carles Martínez spoke at the pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon. The topics: anticipation, passion, the fans’ support – and the captaincy for the new season.
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After 62 days of preparation, the time has finally come: the Werkself kick off the new Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga season on Sunday (16:00 CEST) with an away match at RB Leipzig. Following a major shake-up over the summer, with eleven players leaving and twelve new signings, initial impressions from the past few weeks have given manager Roberto Pätzold great cause for optimism.
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SV Wehen Wiesbaden undoubtedly envisaged a different start to the new season. After two matchdays, the Hessen side currently sit bottom of the Liga 3 table. On Saturday 22 August (kick-off: 13:00 CEST), SVWW host the Werkself in the first round of the DFB Pokal at their home ground, the BRITA Arena. It was there, in this very competition a year ago, that the club almost pulled off a massive upset. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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