While most of the squad completed a regeneration session, only the recovering players including Lars Bender trained at the BayArena. One of those can be very happy: Exequiel Palacios made his first start in the Bundesliga since matchday six last Saturday in the home game against Schalke 04 (2-1). The 22-year-old Argentinian played the full 90 minutes and made a decisive contribution to picking up three points on the first match under head coach Hannes Wolf.
Impressive: For 'Pala' it was the sixth win in his seventh Bundesliga match – plus one draw. Only two other players in the history of the Bundesliga of had more appearances since their debut without suffering a defeat: Former Bayer 04 player Bent Skammelsrud (01 to 04/1998) and Reto Ziegler of Hamburg SV. If the Werkself get a result against TSG Hoffenheim on Monday (kick-off: 20.30 CEST) and Palacios plays then he will join the leading duo.
Do a good turn and win: For several months, the Bayer 04 fan liaison team have been calling all Werkself fans to donate. Numerous projects have been helped financially during the coronavirus pandemic thanks to the campaign ‘Bayer 04-Fans helfen’ campaign. In April funds go to the Wildpark Reuschenberg Leverkusen.
The donation of at least five euros can easily be transferred by the end of the month to the support group for the Wildpark Reuschenberg. Either via PayPal or bank transfer. Account details:
Name: VR Bank eG Bergisch Gladbach-Leverkusen
IBAN: DE03 3706 2600 2801 0000 13
Reference: Spende Bayer 04-Fans helfen
Bayer 04 will raffle great Black and Red prizes amongst all people making donations on every Thursday in April. A Werkself shirt will be in the draw every week. To take part in the draw supporters just have to send proof of donation (e.g. screenshot) via email to fanbetreuung@bayer04.de. The winners will be announced on Thursdays on the Facebook page Bayer 04-Faninfos. Under #gemeinsamfürLEV let us support the animals and their keepers as best as possible. Further information on the Wildpark Reuschenberg is available HERE.
Hertha Berlin and goalkeeping coach Zsolt Petry parted company a few days ago. As his successor, Gábor Király has been mentioned. However, the former Werkself player (01/2009 to 06/2009) has rejected the offer due to other commitments. The 45-year-old has established projects in his home country of Hungary as discussed a few weeks ago in a podcast
Karim Bellarabi, one of the longest serving Werkself players, celebrates his 31st birthday on Thursday. The Berliner join Leverkusen from Eintracht Braunschweig in the 2011/12 season. In 253 appearances to date, the versatile winger has scored an impressive 53 goals and provided 61 assists in a Bayer 04 shirt.
In the 2-1 home win for the Werkself against Schalke 04 last weekend, He was able to make his first start in the Bundesliga since matchday three after being sidelined by injury (including a metacarpal fracture and a thigh injury).
In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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