"Karim will definitely miss a couple of games but we are hoping Jona will be able to play at the weekend," said the Swiss coach about the two players who went off injured. Bellarabi suffered a muscle injury in his left thigh in the Bochum game, and Tah was taken off due to a rib injury.
Sardar Azmoun was able to train again with the squad on Wednesday after recovering from flu. "Sardar needs more time to be 100% fit," said Seoane. The 43-year-old coach is still hoping to be able to call on the services of the winter signing against Leipzig on Sunday 17 April (kick-off: 19.30 CEST): "He can help us immediately in the run-in with his instinct and his technique."
The difficult personnel situation – with Wirtz, Adli, Frimpong and Fosu-Mensah already out for the rest of the season – was specifically excluded as an excuse by Seoane in the press conference: "We have the motivation and the ambition to achieve the maximum."
The head coach is confident looking back at the first half of the season: "We showed how to do it before the winter break when we didn't have any strikers available. We have to believe in our own strengths and look for new options."
The European jersey has been launched, the UEL opponents have been drawn – and anticipation for the European campaign is running high. To mark the occasion, an autograph session was held on Friday afternoon, 28 August, at the Fanwelt with current Werkself player Montrell Culbreath and official club legend Paulo Sergio.
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After six and a half years, Exequiel Palacios is leaving the Bundesliga and moving from Bayer 04 to the Premier League. The Argentine, who as a Werkself player won the World Cup with his national team four years ago and finished as runners-up at this summer’s tournament, will play for newly promoted English side Ipswich Town with immediate effect. The 27-year-old, whose contract in Leverkusen was due to run until 30 June 2030, joined Bayer 04 in January 2020 as a promising young talent. He steadily developed into one of the best defensive midfielders in the German top flight.
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When Exequiel Palacios moved from the Argentinian club River Plate to Bayer Leverkusen on 1 January 2020, the then 21-year-old could not have imagined just how successful the next six and a half years would be for him. Pala, as he is known, had already won the Copa Libertadores – the most prestigious competition in South American club football – with River Plate. But there were still so many more trophies to come.
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To mark Exequiel Palacios’s departure, we’ve put together a compilation of the midfielder’s finest and most important goals from his six-and-a-half years at the club.
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