“The first match is incredibly important. Will we get it right as we intend? If that happens it will give us a certain sense of security for the match. And if we pick up three points then we’ll have exactly what we want to progress in a tournament like this,” declared coach Horst Hrubesch.
Germany, with Lars Bender sharing a room with his twin brother Sven at the team hotel, have high hopes. “The first target is to win the group so we don’t have to move for the quarter-finals. And we want to be in the Olympic village for the semi-finals to share that experience. We’ve heard about that so often and find it absolutely fascinating. As a footballer you can usually only be there once in your life,” said Hrubesch, whose players follow up the opener against Mexico with games against South Korea (Sunday, 21.00 CET) and Fiji (Wednesday, 21.00 CET).
Renato Augusto and Son in Brazil too
Like Julian Brandt, Lars Bender is also really keen to face the challenge of the Olympic Games. “It’s great to be part of the Olympics but I don’t want to just look at photos in the future and say I was there. I would rather hold something in my hands. Every athlete wants to win to have something forever that you can enjoy remembering,” said Lars who was a Under-19 European Champion along with his brother in 2008. Renato Augusto (Brazil) plus Heung-Min Son and Seung-Woo Ryu (both South Korea) are former Bayer 04 players at the Olympic tournament.
Krahn plays in first win
While Bender, Brandt and the men’s team can hardly wait for their Olympic opener, Annike Krahn and the Germany women’s team have already played their first group match in Brazil. The team coached by Silvia Neid clocked up a 6-1 win against Zimbabwe in Sao Paulo. The Werkself central defender, who won a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, played the full 90 minutes. The other group opponents for Germany are Australia (Saturday 23.00 CET) and Canada (Tuesday, 21.00 CET).
Bayer 04 are away to Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb on Matchday 5 of the league phase of the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League. The game kicks off on Thursday 26 November at 18:45 CET at the Maksimir Stadium. All the information on ticket sales.
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It was a match that will live long in the memory of everyone involved: The Bayer 04 U19s celebrated their seventh win in seven matches in the DFB Youth League preliminary round – and yet it was a very special victory indeed: in the 4–3 (1–1) win at VfL Bochum 1848, no fewer than five goals came in the final quarter of an hour. As the 90th minute approached, coach Patrick Greveraars’s side found themselves behind, but then fought back in true ‘Laterkusen’ style.
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Under Carles Martínez, the Werkself have so far proved unbeatable at the BayArena. The Spaniard has led his team to victory in all three of their most recent home matches – and, it's worth noting, without conceding a single goal. On Sunday, 18 October (kick-off: 15:30 CEST / live on DAZN and Werkself Radio), current league leaders SC Freiburg will make the trip to Leverkusen, but will be without their top scorer. What's more, the Werkself have won all three of their previous home matches against the Black Forest club. With a goal, Patrik Schick could not only secure a fourth consecutive victory but also set a memorable record. Meanwhile, on what will be the ‘Health Day' at the BayArena, much of the focus will be on physical wellbeing. Today's matchday news.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 1-1 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday 7 of the 2026/27 Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga.
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