
Tonight at 22.15 CET, Völler is a guest on the sports programme ‘100% Bundesliga’ on RTL Nitro. Together with the presenter Laura Wontorra and Nitro pundit Steffen Freund, the 59-year-old will discuss Bundesliga matchday 22 and the Europa League home game against FC Porto (Thursday, 20 February, 21.00 CET) at the studio in Cologne. The game against the four-time winners of European cup competitions will be broadcast live on RTL.
The 3-2 away win at Union Berlin was a reason for the Bayer 04 playmaker Kai Havertz to celebrate another achievement: The 20-year-old has clocked up his 50th win in his 107th Bundesliga appearance. That milestone has only been reached at a younger age by Julian Draxler (with Schalke 04 and VfL Wolfsburg) and Christian Pulisic (with Borussia Dortmund). After the game at the Alte Försterei stadium, Havertz was voted man of the match by Bayer 04 fans on Twitter with 47.9 % of the votes.

Head coach Peter Bosz had special praise for his winter signing Edmond Tapsoba (from Vitória Guimaraes) after the Union match: “Edmond did very well against Dortmund. And if you saw him against Union then you could hardly believe he’s only been with us for few weeks.” The reward, on top of the three points, was a place in the kicker Team of the Matchday.
In addition, the sports journal also named Tapsoba as their man of the match: “With his assurance in challenges, good vision and great calm in build-up play,” he was “solid from the start of the game.” The towering defender also saw more of the ball than anybody else with 108 touches over the 90 minutes.
The fine performance of the Burkina Faso international was also recognised on the ARD Sportschau programme with the winter signing credited with a “cool display” and Tapsoba was also named in their team of the matchday. Also named in the line-up: Werkself skipper Lars Bender. He covered the most ground in the game with a total of 12.3 kilometres.


It was another incredibly close call in the end: The second showdown in the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship saw the #B04eSports team once again narrowly miss out on a place in the top 16 of the preliminary round – and with it, a spot in the in-person knockout stage. It was a bitter blow: Marc and Sean Landwehr again fell just short, despite being level on points with their rivals. As was the case last month, their weaker record across the twelve individual matches in the six preliminary round fixtures proved decisive.
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“They stuck with us over the past few weeks when things weren’t going so well,” said captain Edmond Tapsoba, thanking the fans for their support after the 2–1 win in Cologne and dedicating the derby victory to them. Throughout the 90 minutes, the Werkself had looked unfazed and in command, inflicting the first home defeat of the season on FC Köln. It was the sixth consecutive win against the Cologne team for Bayer 04 – head coach Carles Martínez, on the other hand, was facing the team from the neighbouring city for the first time and “now really knows what this derby win means”. The Werkself derby review.
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Following the 2–1 derby victory away at FC Köln on Bundesliga matchday 9, Edmond Tapsoba, Malik Tillman and Aleix Garcia spoke to Werkself TV...
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-1 derby win at 1. FC Köln Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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