
The supporting programme for the double winners' final pre-season home match began well before kick-off, at the neighbouring Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Bayer 04's U19s welcomed Alemannia Aachen as part of Matchday 2 of the DFB Youth League - and defeated the visitors 5-2 in front of a top crowd of 670.
Meanwhile, indelible memories were captured next door all around the BayArena: Bayer 04 club members with a ticket for the season opener, who had secured one of the coveted timeslots in advance, were able to take their photo with the championship trophy and the DFB Cup.







Around half an hour before kick-off, Andre Schnura made a surprise appearance among the fans in the stands with his black saxophone, which had been made famous throughout the country since UEFA EURO 2024. The Leverkusen-born musician performed the Bayer 04 anthem live and got the crowd in the mood for the day’s sporting exhibition.

At the start of the warm-up for the match, in front of 28,395 spectators - a record number for a Bayer 04 season opener – a quartet of players received honours from the sidelines. Jonathan Tah, Jeremie Frimpong, Granit Xhaka and Florian Wirtz were handed their trophies by members of the Kurvenrat for being voted as part of the UEFA Europa League 2023/24 "Team of the Season". Wirtz also received the Leverkusen "Player of the Season" award - as voted for by members of the Werkself. In addition, Dennis Heinzmann from Bayer Giants Leverkusen congratulated the winners of this year's city cycling event. At the same time, the fans tried out the many activities and games on offer in and around the stadium.







After the warm-up and following a final team talk in the dressing room, the Werkself went out onto the pitch following one another, meeting with loud support from the fans in the stands. Before kick-off, one last honour was to be bestowed: Xabi Alonso received the kicker "Coach of the Year" award. And then it was time for the match. All the while, a chant from the stands that was unmistakable throughout the season opener could be heard: "Champions of Germany!"







While the Werkself prepared for the second half in the changing rooms, the players and coaching team of Bayer 04's women took to the pitch. Speaking on the stadium microphone, new head coach Roberto Pätzold said, among other things: "I was given a fantastic reception and the framework here at Bayer 04 is excellent. You can feel that it's a big club with a lot of success." He continued: "The team impressed me very highly. The players' willingness to perform is huge. We are working meticulously in training to win as many games as possible and offer the spectators great football to watch."






Regardless of the 1-1 final score (this way to the match report!), the 90 minutes were followed by a penalty shoot-out into the goal in front of the Nordkurve, which the teams had agreed on in advance for training purposes. Lukas Hradecky was the main protagonist of the shoot-out, saving three out of four penalties, while three of the four penalty takers netted for the Werkself - ensuring a successful end to pre-season preparations, with regards to the fixtures played.







Afterwards, all the Werkself players from both the men’s and women’s teams, complete with numerous members of the Löwenclub, handed out some signed footballs to the crowd, providing the fans with another, final highlight of this varied 2024/25 season opener.

In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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