In a relaxed session, the players competed on rebound nets or in one-on-ones with mini goals – Peter Bosz walked round the pitch with a board noting the scores. The warm-up routine saw Joel Pohjanpalo return to training. The Finn, who had been in rehab following an injury to his right ankle, completed parts of the full training session for the first time since the end of July..
"I’m taking it slowly as last time it was probably all too quick. I feel good but it's always a question of how the foot reacts. But we carry on, putting more and more stress on the foot and it's getting better and better. That's the way forward," said the 24-year-old after the session. "Of course, setbacks are painful but I feel the confidence of the coach and the players. Being negative in the dressing room doesn't help anybody. So everybody's happy when I make progress." In spite of not being able to work with the ball, Pohjanpalo has worked extremely hard on his fitness over the past few weeks: "I've achieved values like never before. But I've still got a lot to make up in practice."
There is huge anticipation ahead of the Champions League. Equally so for the first home game. Especially as Bayer 04 fans will then have to be patient before the next home appearance in Europe's premier club competition. After the game against Lokomotiv Moscow on 18 September (kick-off: 21.00 CET), the Peter Bosz team have two away fixtures in Group D. The Champions League anthem will only ring out at the BayArena again at the beginning of November on matchday four. Reason enough to secure tickets for the first group match for the Werkself at home to Lokomotiv Moscow. Individual tickets for the Werkself home game against Lokomotiv Moscow went on sale to Club members on Tuesday 3 September. Open sale starts on Thursday 5 September at 10.00 CET.
686 apprentices have started their working life at Bayer AG this year. In yesterday's traditional welcome event at the Leverkusen casino, Rudi Völler welcomed the new trainees to the Bayer family. As in recent years, the sporting managing director also invited this year’s new trainees, working in the Bayer facilities on the Lower Rhine, to watch a Werkself match in the Bundesliga. This season it is the match against Werder Bremen (25-27 October). The trainees in Berlin received an invitation to the Werkself away game in May of next year against Hertha Berlin at the Olympic Stadium in the capital.
Once again golf was played for a good cause on Monday 2 September. Bayer 04 staged the 11th charity golf tournament in support of the Sportförderung gGmbH at the Leverkusen Golf Course. In addition to partners, sponsors and friends of Bayer 04, Werkself players also showed their skills with the golf club at this annual event – Lars Bender and Niklas Lomb had an impressive round. Also on the course were Bayer 04 CEO Fernando Carro and the former Bayer 04 players Stefan Kießling, Ulf Kirsten and Manuel Friedrich. Food and music for the guests was provided by the SalzburgerLand tourism organisation throughout the day. At the end of the day, the tournament raised €13,500 for good causes.
The organic sandwich box campaign has for many years promoted healthy children's food in numerous cities and regions in Germany. Bayer 04 have consistently supported the initiative of Leverkusen City Council – once again this year as well. Werkself pro Sven Bender helped with packing the reusable breakfast boxes with healthy snacks for breakfast break-time at the 'Nature estate Ophoven'. The organic sandwich boxes will be handed out to first years in the region over the next few days.
The former Bundesliga pro Patrick Owomoyela met up with Kevin Volland at the BayArena for the DFL Interview of the Month. As usual with Owo, Volland and the former pro competed in little games and spoke about life on and off the pitch. A small taster: In the episode to be shown on bundesliga.com next month, the pair can be seen in full ice hockey kit.
Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 3-0 win against FC St. Pauli in the quarter-final of the DFB-Pokal 2025/26...
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Once again in the last four! Bayer 04 put in a mature and, for long stretches, commanding performance to defeat a courageous FC St. Pauli in the quarter-finals of the 2025/26 DFB Pokal to reach the semi-finals of the competition for the third time in a row. Martin Terrier gave Leverkusen the lead on 32 minutes before Patrik Schick made it 2-0 on 63 minutes. Substitute Jonas Hofmann capped off a strong second half for the Werkself with the third goal in added time.
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The German Football League (DFL) has announced the three candidates for the title of Bundesliga Rookie of the Month for January. That includes Werkself player Jarell Quansah. Fans of Bayer 04 can vote for their favourite on the Bundesliga app from now until Thursday, 5 January (23:59 CET).
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As in the past two years, the Werkself are aiming to come out on top in the DFB Pokal quarter-finals on Tuesday night, 3 February (kick-off: 20:45 CET). With eleven home games in a row without defeat against the Kiezkicker, the Black and Reds go into the floodlit match in confident mood. But the Pokal, as is often said, has its own magic and the team from the Millerntor has much more to offer than the current 17th place in the Bundesliga would suggest. After all, Bayer 04 are one of the big German teams the combative Hamburgers have already made life difficult for this season. The matchday news.
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The Leverkusen eSports team picked up valuable points and made up ground in the overall table with a top four finish in the offline round in Showdown 4 in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26. In the round of 16, Showdown 1 winners Bayer 04 defeated the unbeaten runners-up in the previous round, VfL Bochum, in a thrilling penalty shoot-out. The Landwehr cousins, themselves the current club runners-up, then beat the current club champions and Showdown 3 winners RB Leipzig. It was not until the semi-finals that they lost out to the eventual showdown winners Borussia Mönchengladbach.
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