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
“Year after year, this is an incredibly valuable gathering, both in terms of the content covered and the opportunity for mutual discussion,” stressed Bayer 04 goalkeeping coach David Thiel in his welcoming address at this year’s goalkeeping coaches’ meeting. This was the third time in four seasons that the event had been held at the BayArena. Organised by the German Football Association (DFB), the meeting brought together goalkeeping coaches from the Bundesliga, Bundesliga 2 and the 3rd division from the west region. For the first time this year, goalkeeping coaches from the youth performance centres (NLZ) were also present. Bayer 04 fitness coach Markus Müller provided fascinating insights into the specific fitness training carried out with the Werkself’s goalkeepers.
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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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Several Werkself players are set to represent their national teams during the final international break of 2026. Here’s an overview of who has been called up and the matches they will face in November. This article will be updated regularly.
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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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