In spite of the draw against the lower league opposition, Heiko Herrlich was keen to praise his team. "I really appreciate our performance. It's not that easy to be fully focused on a friendly the day after the players were in a high state of excitement after the game against Bayern Munich – above all for those players who came on as substitutes yesterday. But my team played well," said the Bayer 04 head coach.
After the friendlies against Greuther Fürth (2-1) and Preußen Münster (2-2) last weekend and the Bayern game, Herrlich mainly gave players time on the pitch who did not play against the Munich side. While the other members of yesterday's team went through recovery training at the BayArena, Benjamin Henrichs, Lucas Alario and Admir Mehmedi were three players in the starting eleven who came off the bench against the league leaders. "If you ignore yesterday's match then we're in the eleventh day of the mid-season break. I wanted to use the friendly to give players who haven't featured much the chance to get match practice," declared the Bayer 04 head coach in explaining his unusual friendly line-up. "It meant the whole squad could go the full distance twice within twelve days. That was the point of it."
Captained by Stefan Kießling, the Werkself made the better start in front of 430 fans at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Just after the kick-off, the former Werkself shot-stopper in goal for Sportfruende, Benedikt Fernandez, was able to prevent the visitors going behind early on when he saved a shot from Joel Pohjanpalo on three minutes. Instead, it was Lotte who opened the scoring on 20 minutes: After a perceived foul by Panos Retsos, referee Dr. Martin Thomsen awarded a penalty and Kevin Pires-Rodrigues gave Rambo Özcan no chance of making a save. The two teams went into half-time with the scores level at 1-1 after Aránguiz netted following a great one-two with Lucas Alario (41').
The second half developed into a race to score the next goal: The Werkself had significantly more of the game and they succeeded in creating a number of clear-cut chances – Pohjanpalo was unlucky two minutes after the restart when his header hit the right-hand post. As the game progressed, with Herrlich bringing on two U19 players in Jakub Bednarczyk and Sam Schreck, the Werkself had more goalscoring opportunities. And the failure to convert was due , in part, to the display in goal from the Lotte keeper Fernandez. The game ended all square at 1-1. "We produced a professional performance right to the end and we dominated the game. Unfortunately, we didn't take our chances ," said Herrlich.
Bayer 04: Özcan (Lomb 46') – Frey, Jedvaj, Retsos, Henrichs (Bednarczyk 55') – Baumgartlinger, Aránguiz – Mehmedi (Schreck 78') – Pohjanpalo, Kießling, Alario
The European jersey has been launched, the UEL opponents have been drawn – and anticipation for the European campaign is running high. To mark the occasion, an autograph session was held on Friday afternoon, 28 August, at the Fanwelt with current Werkself player Montrell Culbreath and official club legend Paulo Sergio.
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On Friday afternoon, it will be decided which eight of the 36 participating teams Bayer 04 will face in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League in 2026/27. At the draw in Monaco (live on UEFA.com), the Werkself will be drawn against two teams from each of the four pots, allocated according to the UEFA club coefficient. A match against an opponent from the same country is ruled out, as is facing more than two clubs from the same national association. Here’s a look at the pots and potential opponents.
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After six and a half years, Exequiel Palacios is leaving the Bundesliga and moving from Bayer 04 to the Premier League. The Argentine, who as a Werkself player won the World Cup with his national team four years ago and finished as runners-up at this summer’s tournament, will play for newly promoted English side Ipswich Town with immediate effect. The 27-year-old, whose contract in Leverkusen was due to run until 30 June 2030, joined Bayer 04 in January 2020 as a promising young talent. He steadily developed into one of the best defensive midfielders in the German top flight.
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When Exequiel Palacios moved from the Argentinian club River Plate to Bayer Leverkusen on 1 January 2020, the then 21-year-old could not have imagined just how successful the next six and a half years would be for him. Pala, as he is known, had already won the Copa Libertadores – the most prestigious competition in South American club football – with River Plate. But there were still so many more trophies to come.
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