After the hard-fought 1-0 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the DFB Cup, the Bayer 04 pros had the chance to take a well-deserved break over the festive period into the New Year. Although this winter break has been shorter than normal due to the World Cup finals in the summer with the associated earlier start to the second half of the Bundesliga campaign, Werkself players and coaching staff used the opportunity to get far away to recharge their batteries: Bernd Leno spent a couple of days in New York, Stefan Kießling went to Austria with his family, Joel Pohjanpalo took a break in Helsinki and Karim Bellarabi went to Africa.
Today, the focus is clearly on the restart of the league campaign with what promises to be a cracker of a match on Friday 12 January at 20.30 CET in front a sell-out crowd at the BayArena against the runaway league leaders and reigning champions Bayern Munich. After the opening session on Tuesday, the Werkself have a double shift on Tuesday (10.30 CET and 15.30 CET) with another public session on Thursday (15.30 CET) before the first of two friendlies. Bayer 04 entertain second division SpVgg Greuther Fürth at the Haberland Stadium on Friday before taking on third division Preußen Münster at the same venue on Saturday. The two games kick off at 14.00 CET. The three South Americans Charles Aránguiz, Wendell and Lucas Alario will join their team-mates on Wednesday as Heiko Herrlich has given the trio an extra day off due to the long journeys from Chile, Brazil and Argentina.
There is another highlight for the Werkself at the weekend. During the ARD Sportschau TV show on Sunday the draw will be held for the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup at 18.00 CET – and it's fingers crossed for a favourable draw in the last eight.
For a long time, it looked like Bayer 04 would claim their first Bundesliga victory of the season, but the Werkself were frustrated after the final whistle. The 3-3 draw away at Werder Bremen left the players with long faces and disappointed reactions. The Werkself review
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Bayer 04 are still without a win in the Bundesliga after two games following a 3-3 draw away at Werder Bremen. Leverkusen had gone 2-0 up through Patrik Schick and Malik Tillman, before Romano Schmid’s penalty prior to half-time. Schick’s own spot-kick restored the two-goal advantage in the second half as Werder were reduced to 10 men, but Isaac Schmidt got the hosts back into it again before Karim Coulibaly’s added-time equaliser.
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UEFA have confirmed the fixture list for the league phase of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League.
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Bayer 04 make their second attempt at picking up their first three points of this Bundesliga season as they visit Werder Bremen on Saturday. The hosts may be struggling with injuries and reeling from back-to-back defeats to kick off the campaign, but they’ll want to put that right in their first home outing. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the match, which kicks off at 3.30pm CEST.
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