
Volland is ranked behind Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) as the second best striker in the Bundesliga and is included in the International Class category. "The 26-year-old demonstrated his goalscoring instinct with eight goals and, with ten assists, he also showed his value to the team and demonstrated his ability to read the game," was the reasoning. "Volland has become a fixed point in Bayer's attacking game and he has finally become a leader on the pitch," the analysis continued. A noteworthy step up as the winter rankings had the striker as an outsider.
After the 4-0 win against Japan and the 2-1 victory over Ecuador, the Chile team with Charles Aránguiz have their last group match in the Copa America in the early hours of Tuesday. Aránguiz and his La Roja team-mates play second-placed Uruguay in the South American Championships at one in the morning German time. Chile can be relaxed as they already qualified the quarter-finals on Saturday. Wendell was the lucky omen and Chile fan in the stands. Wearing the Chile colours, the Brazilian crosses fingers for his Werkself team-mate – after the game Aránguiz presented him with his shirt as a thank you.
Leon Bailey is also top of the group with Jamaica at the Gold Cup. After the 3-2 win against Honduras and the goalless draw against El Salvador, Bailey and the Reggae Boyz have their last group match in the early hours of Wednesday (kick-off: two in the morning German time). There will be looking to confirm their place in the quarter-finals in the game against Curaçao
While the international players are still away with their countries, the rest of the Werkself are enjoying the last week of the summer holidays before it's back to work next week. On the morning of Monday 1 July there are the performance tests followed in the afternoon by the start of training. The first pros have already started to return to the BayArena. Returnee Niklas Lomb has been working on his own in the Werkstatt since last week. Karim Bellarabi and Joel Pohjanpalo are both expected back this week. After being sidelined with injuries in the second half of the season, they are completing a few special sessions under the guidance of Carsten Rademacher, head of the Werkstatt.

Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 0-1 loss at Werder Bremen on the 13th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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The penultimate Bundesliga matchday of the calendar year marks the end of an eventful first half of the season for the Bayer 04 Women. After seven wins, one draw and four defeats from the first twelve games of the season, coach Roberto Pätzold's team can go above Werder Bremen in the table with a win on Friday, 12 December (kick-off: 18:30 CET).
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The third showdown in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26 kicks off for the Leverkusen eSports team this Thursday, 11 December (live on the B04eSports Twitch channel from 19:00 CET). In the online preliminary round, the Black and Red will once again take on six previously drawn opponents for a place in the Top 16 and the associated entry into the offline knockout round, which will take place at this third showdown on 19 December in Cologne. Showdown One winners Bayer 04 will face FC St. Pauli, who won the second showdown last month, among others. The lowdown on first three opponents in this online preliminary round.
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The exact dates for the quarter-finals of the 2025/26 DFB Pokal have been finalised. Accordingly, Bayer 04's home tie against Bundesliga rivals FC St. Pauli will be played on Tuesday, 3 February 2026, with the kick-off at 20:45 CET. This was announced by the German Football Association (DFB) today (Thursday).
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