
Baumi' led out Austria as captain against North Macedonia and central defender Dragovic held the Austrian defence together. And the hosts got off to a flying start at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna: David Alaba (FC Bayern) converted an assist from Stefan Lainer (Borussia Mönchengladbach) on seven minutes. The team coached by Franco Foda dominated the game and striker Marko Arnautovic had good chances to add to the score (17', 22', 35',). As the 30-year-old missed those opportunities, Austria went into the half-time break with a 1-0 lead.
The hosts scored again early in the second half: This time it was Lainer who doubled the lead with a tap-in (48'). Austria remained in control of the match and conceded few chances to the north Macedonians. When the opponents did pose a threat, Baumgartlinger was on the spot to clear (53'). Vlatko Stojanovski pulled a goal back in added time (90+3') but that did not spoil the Austrians celebrating qualification for their third European Championship finals.
Germany will also be at Euro 2020 thanks to a convincing 4-0 win against Belarus with the Werkself pros Jonathan Tah and Nadiem Amiri on the bench for the full 90 minutes. The result means the team coached by Joachim Löw will finish in the top two positions in Group C. After a long period where Germany found it difficult to break down the Macedonian defence, it was Matthias Ginter who gave Germany the lead: Playing at his home ground in Mönchengladbach, the central defender scored an impressive goal with a back heel from a Serge Gnabry pass to make it 1-0 on 42 minutes.
The hosts immediately set out to seal the result after the restart – with success. Just four minutes were played when Leon Goretzka hit the ball into the bottom left corner with a low drive from 13 yards out. Germany produced an impressive performance with Toni Kroos scoring the third goal on 55 minutes. Belarus failed to pull a goal back when Igor Stasevich missed a penalty with Germany keeper Manuel Neuer making an excellent save (75'). Kroos netted his second for the final score of 4-0 and qualification for next years European Championships.
Werkself youth goalkeeper Marcel Lotke did not play in the group match for qualification to the U19 European Championships. His Polish team-mates beat Kosovo in a convincing 4-1 win to secure their first points in the qualifiers.

Bayer 04 have agreed a loan move for U19s striker Ken Izekor to join Bundesliga 2 club Eintracht Braunschweig on loan for the rest of the 2025/26 season.
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Bayer 04 have agreed a loan deal for Jeanuel Belocian to join fellow Bundesliga club Wolfsburg on loan until the end of the season. The 20-year-old defender’s contract in Leverkusen runs until 30 June 2029.
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After Leverkusen's eSports team spectacularly won the first showdown in the history of the VBL Club Championship last year, two rather sobering editions followed with two early exits. Now, in Showdown Four, cousins Marc and Sean Landwehr have once again made it into the offline knockout phase. And in this phase, Bochum awaits on Monday, 2 February (live on the VBL's Twitch channel from 16:00 CET). Here's a look at their opponents and what might happen next.
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SAB-P GmbH is to become Bayer 04 Leverkusen's first official inclusion partner. The company, which has previously been involved in the club's Business Club, is underlining its social commitment to inclusion with an agreement that runs until 31 May 2027. Among other things, it will be the shirt sponsor of the Inclusion Team from the 2026/27 season onwards.
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The Werkself were impressive in the 3-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt with clinical finishing and a first half "at a high level" that head coach Kasper Hjulmand draws a lot of positives from. The same should apply to Arthur, who scored for the first time in the Bundesliga. Edmond Tapsoba, for his part, was happy about his 250th appearance in a Bayer 04 jersey. "I think we're slowly finding our feet again," said goalscorer Malik Tillman, summing up the performance. The Werkself review.
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