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.
Bayer 04 have comfortably reached the DFB Pokal second round thanks to a 4–0 victory away to Liga 3 side SV Wehen Wiesbaden. Patrik Schick put the Werkself ahead in the first 45 in the first competitive match under head coach Carles Martínez with debuts for new signings Miguel Gutiérrez, Afonso Moreira and Facundo Medina. After the break, Lucas Vázquez (47'), Nathan Tella (69') and Christian Kofane (79') also found the back of the net.
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Today brings the first match of the season for the Werkself. Bayer 04 kick off the 2026/27 campaign today, Saturday 22 August, at 13:00 CEST with a first-round DFB Pokal tie away to third-tier side SV Wehen Wiesbaden. The 3,700 travelling fans can not only look forward to what will hopefully be a successful start to the season, but also now organise their journeys to Black and Reds games even more easily via the WERKSELFgo car-share platform. Meanwhile, following two defeats at the start of the league season, SV Wehen are hoping to spring a surprise in the DFB Pokal tie. Today’s matchday news.
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Carolin Simon is the new captain of the Bayer 04 women’s team. The full-back, who joined from Bayern Munich in the summer, will take over the captain’s armband for the 2026/27 season. Simon returned to Leverkusen in the summer after ten years away. The 33-year-old succeeds goalkeeper Friederike Repohl, who retired at the end of last season.
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With the 2026/27 season set to kick off with a DFB Pokal tie away to SV Wehen Wiesbaden (Saturday, 22 August, 13:00 CEST), the squad numbers for two Werkself players have now been confirmed. New signing Afonso Moreira will wear the number 9, which he has already worn in pre-season friendlies. Lucas Vázquez is switching from number 21 to number 17 – the number he wore successfully at Real Madrid for many years.
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