Dressed in their black and red training kit and – as is essential these days – wearing face masks, the Werkself players and coaching staff explored Prague at lunchtime (see gallery below). Rest was on the agenda after lunch at the team hotel. The group will set off for the Eden Arena after the pre-match meal in the early evening.
The Werks11 Radio duo are back to full strength: After being sidelined through illness – he missed the games against Mainz and Nice as well as Augsburg – Niko Hartmann has returned just in time for the clash at Slavia Prague. The experienced radio reporter joins Cedric Pick on Thursday to accompany Werkself fans through the evening. In a change from the usual procedure, they will not be at the game but instead at the BayArena. The duo will be on air 30 minutes before kick-off – tune in at bayer04.de or on the Bayer 04 app.
Anybody preferring to watch the game on television can take in the match and build-up on free TV at RTL Nitro from 20.15 CET plus the streaming service DAZN.
Five Bayer 04 Women players are on the road with their national teams; two have already played: Dora Zeller and Lilla Turanyi started for Hungary in a Euro qualifier but ended up on the losing side in a 2-1 defeat against Slovakia. Zeller was substituted on 87 minutes while Turanyi went the full distance. Henrietta Csiszár had to drop out at short notice due to an injury. Information on the current international break can be found HERE.
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.
Show more
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.
Show more
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.
Show more
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.
Show more
