The Werkself take on Udinese four days after the goalless friendly against Greek Cup winners Panathinaikos. The club from the north-east of Italy finished twelfth in the league table last term and they have been members of Serie A since the 1950s.
Udinese brought in Andrea Sottil as the new head coach for the start of the new season. The 48-year-old Italian was previously at second division club Ascoli. As a player, Sottil made 250 top-flight appearances in Italy and he won the domestic cup competition in 1993 with Torino and three years later with Fiorentina.
The squad of the club founded in 1896 has five players who previously played in Germany: Central defender Jaka Bijol and holding midfielder Walace were at Hannover 96 and the latter also played for Hamburg SV. Mato Jajalo played for FC Köln, Tolgay Arslan was a youth player at Borussia Dortmund and at HSV, Lazar Samardzic was in the youth teams at Hertha Berlin and RB Leipzig. The quintet clocked up a total of 270 Bundesliga appearances as well as 90 games in Bundesliga 2.
Probably the best known players internationally are Roberto Pereyra and Gerard Deulofeu. The Argentinian playmaker Pereyra played for Italian record champions Juventus for many years and also for Watford in the Premier League, centre-forward Deulofeu won La Liga twice with Barcelona and the Europa League with Sevilla.
Like the Werkself, Udinese have played several pre-season friendlies. An 11-0 victory at Rapid Lienz (Austria) was followed by a 3-3 draw against Leverkusen Bundesliga rivals Union Berlin. For the Italians, experience striker Ilija Nestorovski netted a brace and defender Filip Benkovic also found the back of the net.
After a 3-0 win against Slovenian second division club Ilirija comes the game against Bayer 04 and that is followed by a meeting with Chelsea, including Werkself home-grown player Kai Havertz, next Friday to round off the pre-season for the North Italians.
Two Saturdays, one Friday and one Sunday: The dates for the Bayer 04 Women's team games on matchdays 16 to 19 have been finalised. Three of the four matches scheduled by the German Football Association (DFB) on Tuesday will be played at home at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium.
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The Werkself rang in the Black and Red festive season with an emotional visit to Klinikum Leverkusen. Kristin Kögel, Melissa Friedrich and Louisa Remien from the Bayer 04 Women's team and Jonas Hofmann, Janis Blaswich and Niklas Lomb from the first team visited the young patients on the children's ward and, for the first time, on the ‘Zeitinsel’ children's palliative care unit. They brought a host of lovingly wrapped presents ensuring a big surprise for young and old alike.
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Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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Bayer 04 Women finish 2025 with the first game of the second half of the Google Pixel Bundesliga season as they host defending champions and league leaders Bayern Munich at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion on Monday. Kick-off is at 18:00 CET. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the Matchday 14 encounter.
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