The last meeting of the two teams is well remembered by everybody at Bayer 04. In the qualifying rounds for the Champions League in August 2015, the Werkself won 3-0 at the BayArena with goals from Hakan Calhanoglu, Admir Mehmedi and Karim Bellarabi. A 1-0 defeat in the second leg saw Bayer 04 progress to the group stage. An eminently important victory against a strong opponent who finished last season in third place in the Serie A just one point behind rivals AS Roma and ahead of clubs like Fiorentina, Napoli plus Inter and AC Milan – the best league finish since the second title win in the club's history in 2000.
At the turn-of-the-century, Lazio were a top European team with stars like Alessandro Nesta, Pavel Nedved and Juan Sebastián Verón under Sven-Göran Eriksson who went on to be the England manager. In 1999 they were the last team to win the European Cup Winners Cup. In the championship winning season came the first two matches between the 'Biancoceleste' and Bayer 04. The two clubs met in the group stage of the Champions League with the ties producing two 1-1 draws – the only two points dropped in the group stage by Lazio who went through to the quarter-finals.
Lazio in the Europa League
The team from the Italian capital are on the European stage again this season. Last season's fifth-place finish under coach Simone Inzaghi, younger brother of the Italian legend striker Filippo Inzaghi, are in the Europa League in 2017/18. Stars of the team include the sought after striker Keita Baldé, defender Stefan de Vrij and the two Brazilian midfielders Felipe Anderson and Lucas Leiva. The latter joined the club last week after ten years at Liverpool.
Fans of the Bundesliga will also be familiar with Ciro Immobile. The central striker, who played for Borussia Dortmund in 2014/2015, joined Lazio last summer to take over the arduous mantle from Miroslav Klose, who scored 63 goals for the Roman side between 2011 and 2016. Before the record goalscorer for Germany, who became a crowd favourite in the Eternal City, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Karl-Heinz Riedle and Thomas Doll all wore the shirt with the Lazio eagle on the chest.
Season launch with match against Celta Vigo
The Werkself head home directly after the final whistle in Grödig. The next and last friendly in the pre-season is against Spanish top-flight side Celta Vigo at the season launch at the BayArena on 5 August.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without the two strikers in the immediate future. Caroline Kehrer suffered a torn ligament in her right knee and Amy Wrigge tore her cruciate ligament.
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The #B04eSports players now have the next chance to win a trophy. After their elimination in the quarter-finals of the VBL Club Championship Final 2025/26, the German club championship, Marc and Sean Landwehr will compete with seven other teams in the finals of the DFB-ePokal 2026 with prize money totalling €65,000. The "highly motivated" Leverkusen team will face the defending champions FOKUS with well-known influencer Elias ‘EliasN97’ Nerlich in the quarter-finals in Frankfurt on Friday, 20 March (from 18:15 CET). The semi-finals and final will be played on Saturday, 21 March.
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Bayer 04 host Bayern Munich in the semi-finals of the 2025/26 DFB Pokal. The tie will be played on Wednesday, 22 April 2026, at the BayArena with the kick-off at 20:45 CEST. Information on ticket sales.
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Bayer 04 have the chance to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League for the third time ever and the first in 14 years at Arsenal on Tuesday night (kick-off 21:00 CEST/20:00 local time). To do that, the Werkself not only require a strong performance like in the first leg, but also full concentration until the very last minute, as the Premier League leaders like to score late - as they did at the BayArena last week. Here's the Matchday News.
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A special award for special social commitment. At this year's ceremony for the Sepp Herberger Awards in Wolfsburg on Monday night, the DFB Sepp Herberger Foundation recognised Bayer 04 in the social rehabilitation category. The Bundesliga club received the prize, together with €12,000, for its great service to inmates, particularly in the Wuppertal-Ronsdorf prison.
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