Germany dominated proceedings from the kick-off. Most of the attacks came via Brandt with the winger providing his first assist on eight minutes as Serge Gnabry opened the scoring. Brandt tried his luck shortly after that but the Fiji keeper saved his effort on goal but Nils Petersen was on hand to tap in the rebound on 14 minutes. Bender put through a brilliant pass on the half-hour mark for Max Meyer to make it 3-0.
The Germany youngsters were on the road to victory but winning by a five-goal margin was essential to ensure progress to the last four. And Brandt certainly played his part: He fed Petersen just before the break for the fifth goal. And Brandt laid on another goal for Petersen in the second half to round off the scoring at 10-0 on 70 minutes. Germany were through to the quarter-final stage of the competition. Hrubesch next leads his players out on Saturday night (18.00 CET) against Portugal in Brasilia.
Krahn in quarter-finals
Annike Krahn is already in the last eight. The Leverkusen central defender and her Germany team-mates lost the final group match against Canada 2-1 but succeeded in finishing second in Group F. A victory on Friday night (21.00 CET) against China in Salvador da Bahia would put the team coached by Silvia Neid in reach of a medal.
Getting ready for the Champions League
BayArena looked spick and span on Wednesday. Preparations are underway for the new Champions League campaign and the Bayer 04 outfitters Anson's brought along the new suits. For the first team, coaching staff and support staff it means: standing still and being measured. New signing Joel Pohjanpalo was followed on Snapchat and the story is available at bayer04snaps until tomorrow night.
Tough training session
That was followed by training. The morning after the 2-1 win in the benefit match at Kickers Offenbach saw the coaching staff hold a two-hour session with intensive drills focussing on technique and tactics. The first team squad put in a shift with circuits, passing practice and moves on the agenda with Levin Öztunali sharing his opinion with Bayer 04 TV: “We’ve worked really hard today and over the past few weeks. The season can start soon.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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Bayer 04 face Hamburger SV for the first time in almost eight years. Although the Hanseatic city team are often below par on the road, they are regularly in top form in front of their own fans. In particular, 18-year-old shooting star Luka Vuskovic is proving to be a real bonus for Merlin Polzin's team, both in attack and defence. However, that should not scare the Werkself: Not only was the last defeat against the newly promoted team 17 games ago, but Kasper Hjulmand's players are in with a chance of securing their fifth win in six games against HSV. Today’s matchday news.
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Hamburger SV and Bayer 04 meet again in the Bundesliga for the first time in almost eight years. This Tuesday evening, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET), the promoted team with impressive home form welcome the Werkself to the Volksparkstadion to round off the Hinrunde. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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