The last Bundesliga home game of the season for the Werkself is against Schalke 04 on Saturday 11 May (15.30 CET). On matchday 33, Bayer 04 celebrate a weekend of events in honour of the 40th anniversary of promotion to the top flight and invite fans to take a trip back through time. The day after the Schalke game on Sunday (12 May, from 9.30 CET) Bayer 04 fans will have the opportunity to meet numerous black and red heroes of yesterday, today and tomorrow at the Day of Tradition in and around the BayArena. But there is more!
The weekend begins on Friday (10 May from 19.04 CET) with the chance to celebrate 'Promotion Day'. Almost 40 years to the day – 13 May 1979 to be exact – Bayer 04 drew 3-3 with Bayer 05 Uerdingen at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium to secure promotion to the Bundesliga and finally see the dream of top-flight football come true. This historic moment in the club's history sees the club dedicate their own event, including Q & A sessions, anecdotes and historic video material. Celebrate the whole evening with the Werkself and get to meet promotion heroes of 1979 and other surprise guests at the '19nullvier' lounge at the BayArena.
Tickets for 'Promotion Day' are available now for five euros from the Bayer 04 Fan Liaison (Fanhaus Bayer 04, Breidenbachstraße 46, 51373 Leverkusen) as well as from the Fan Kiste container from 13.30 CET on the day of the Werkself home game against FC Nürnberg (20 April, 15.30 CET). With every ticket sold, support goes to the Kreativ Schwarz-Rot (Creative Black and Red) club whose activities include financing and implementing creative ideas of the Leverkusen fans in the form of choreography. In addition, the price also includes a free drink.
It was another incredibly close call in the end: The second showdown in the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship saw the #B04eSports team once again narrowly miss out on a place in the top 16 of the preliminary round – and with it, a spot in the in-person knockout stage. It was a bitter blow: Marc and Sean Landwehr again fell just short, despite being level on points with their rivals. As was the case last month, their weaker record across the twelve individual matches in the six preliminary round fixtures proved decisive.
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“They stuck with us over the past few weeks when things weren’t going so well,” said captain Edmond Tapsoba, thanking the fans for their support after the 2–1 win in Cologne and dedicating the derby victory to them. Throughout the 90 minutes, the Werkself had looked unfazed and in command, inflicting the first home defeat of the season on FC Köln. It was the sixth consecutive win against the Cologne team for Bayer 04 – head coach Carles Martínez, on the other hand, was facing the team from the neighbouring city for the first time and “now really knows what this derby win means”. The Werkself derby review.
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Following the 2–1 derby victory away at FC Köln on Bundesliga matchday 9, Edmond Tapsoba, Malik Tillman and Aleix Garcia spoke to Werkself TV...
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-1 derby win at 1. FC Köln Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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