Following the DFB Cup final on 4 July and an unusual and intensive run of games, the Werkself were able to enjoy a break before the first coronavirus tests are taken on Wednesday evening. A second set of tests will be carried out on Thursday morning and the first training session will be held tomorrow night. That marked the start of preparations for the Round of 16 second leg match in the Europa league against Glasgow Rangers on 6 August (kick-off: 18.55 CET).
Also undergoing tests is summer signing Lennart Grill. The goalkeeper joined Bayer 04 from third division FC Kaiserslautern and – given a negative test result – he will take part in the first training after a short break.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the initial training session and all other sessions will be held behind closed doors until further notice.
The Werkself are in second place behind FC Bayern on 61.5% in the Bundesliga rankings of teams with the most possession last season. Another stat was published on Wednesday in the Sport Bild magazine and the Black and Reds also did very well in that – and it is a Europea-wide statistic. Bayer 04 covered an average per game of 11.9 kilometres in possession of the ball. This figure puts the Bosz team fourth of all the clubs from the top five leagues in Europe (England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany). The ranking led by FC Bayern sees the Werkself ahead of big clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Paris Saint Germain and Juventus.
Bayer 04 are also high up the table in the top five leagues in terms of the number of passes per game: The average of 656 completed passes puts the Rhinelanders in seventh place. Ahead of Liverpool, Napoli, Real Madrid and Juventus.
After relegation from the second division, Dynamo Dresden have extended the contract with assistant coach and former Werkself player Heiko Scholz by twelve months to 2021. The 54-year-old former winger joined Bayer 04 from Dresden as a player in 1992 and he went on to play in 75 Bundesliga matches for the Black and Reds (five goals, five assists). After three years, he moved on to Werder Bremen where he ended his playing career in the summer of 2000.
Scholz has been a coach since 2003. In December of last year, he gave up his position as head coach at the North-East Regional League side Wacker Nordhausen and took over as caretaker coach at Dynamo following the dismissal of Christian Fiel. Scholz is now assistant to Dynamo Dresden's head coach Markus Kauczinski.
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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Kasper Hjulmand has led the Werkself back to winning ways and is back in the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League with Bayer 04 after the 3-0 win against Villarreal on Wednesday evening. In an interview with the Werkself magazine at the BayArena in the team meeting room, directly opposite the dressing room, he provided some special insights for the current issue, which was published in January. A conversation with the 53-year-old coach about values, attitudes and personal experiences as well as interests outside of football.
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The thrilling 3-1 win for Bayer 04 against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Hinrunde is a fond memory for Alejandro Grimaldo, with his brace from free kicks, and coach Kasper Hjulmand, who was in the dugout under the Cross for the first time. Now comes the return fixture in the metropolis on the River Main and after going out of the DFB Pokal and the Champions League, the full focus at Eintracht, currently managed by two interim coaches, is now on the Bundesliga. For their part, the Werkself will do everything in their power to continue the longest winning run against a Bundesliga club. The matchday news.
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Bayer 04 have ended Artem Stepanov’s loan deal at Nürnberg and agreed a new loan to Utrecht in the Netherlands. The Ukrainian striker did not play as much as hoped for at the Bundesliga 2 club and will now continue his development in the Eredivisie for the rest of 2025/26.
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The draw for the knockout play-offs of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League was made on Friday, 30 January and saw Bayer 04 paired with Olympiacos. It’s a reunion with the Greek side following the Werkself’s 2-0 loss in Athens on Matchday 7 of the league phase.
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