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
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
Show moreTo all Bayer 04 fans: The Fanwelt will be closed all day next Monday 30 June. This is due to preparations for the change of kit supplier from Castore to New Balance on Tuesday 1 July.
Show moreThe Norway U23 international Julie Jorde has completed the move from Bayer 04 Leverkusen to Brøndby IF. The twelve-time champions of Denmark have signed the midfielder on permanent terms after her loan move from the Bundesliga to Denmark in the winter.
Show moreIt is almost two years since Bayer 04 new signing Abdoulaye Faye first stepped foot into the BayArena as a player for the Swedish club BK Häcken in the opening match in the 2023/24 Europa League campaign. A day before his nineteenth birthday, the central defender did not play in the 4-0 win for the Werkself but it was "an incredible night" for him on 21 September 2023 as he explained in his first interview on bayer04.de. "I watched the players and saw the fans. I liked it." It was also the first European night early on in his career. He only joined the then champions of Sweden in the cold north of Europe from his home in Senegal a few weeks before that special moment. Bayer04.de profiles our new defender.
Show moreWelcome, Abdoulaye Faye. The 20-year-old Senegalese central defender joins Leverkusen from top-flight Swedish club BK Häcken. In his first interview he talks about his move to Bayer 04 and his targets with the Werkself.
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