Lowdown on the opponents:
The Dutch club FC Utrecht are currently sixth in the Eredivisie. There are currently two Germans at Utrecht: Leon Guwara, formerly a player in the Bundesliga with SV Darmstadt, and Rico Strieder, who went through the youth ranks at FC Bayern for 12 years and played one game for the first team: He was left-back for the full 90 minutes in the 2-0 defeat for the record champions at Bayer 04 on 2 May 2015. Justin Hoogma is also part of the Utrecht squad this season on loan from Hoffenheim. The coach of the Dutch club is John van den Brom.
The van den Brom team have three games to play before the winter break starts. Utrecht visit Heracles Almelo on Sunday before playing FC Groningen in the second round of the Dutch cup competition four days later. FC Utrecht end 2019 with a league home game against Feyenoord.
FC St. Gallen, the reinvigorated big club from eastern Switzerland, have been managed by the German head coach Peter Zeigler since 2018. FC St. Gallen are in touch with the leading group in the Swiss Raiffeisen Super League with 35 points from 17 games behind reigning champions Young Boys Bern (37) and FC Basel (36). The fact St. Gallen are currently in third place is no coincidence as the team recently demonstrated. They have secured three 4-1 wins in the last three league games. That means the team coached by Zeigler, whose last job in Germany was at Stuttgarter Kickers over a decade ago in 2007, currently have the best attack in the league with 41 goals scored
There is also a German player at FC St. Gallen. Midfielder Lucas Görtler, who played for FC Utrecht last season, was signed by the Swiss club this summer and he was previously at FC Kaiserslautern from 2015 to 2017. FC St. Gallen have their last league game of the year on Saturday: They entertain fourth-placed FC Zürich.
The Bayer 04 Leverkusen Women’s team and s2-Software are continuing their long-term partnership: The Werkself and the provider of pre-owned Microsoft licences have extended their contract by two years to 2028. This means s2-Software will remain the Bayer 04 sleeve sponsor for all matches in the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga.
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BIOGENA is the new performance partner for the Bayer 04 Leverkusen Women’s team. Under a partnership initially set to run for three years, the club and the leading Austrian micronutrient company are pooling their expertise in the areas of health, fitness and top-level performance.
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100 children from the Bayer 04 Football Academy had the chance to gain exclusive insights: As part of the summer camp, the young footballers headed inside the BayArena at midday on Tuesday, 21 July, where they were due to meet Werkself keepers Janis Blaswich and Simeon Rapsch in the press conference room. The two players took plenty of time to answer every question from the inquisitive audience – whether it was about their own careers or their first impressions of the new head coach. Finally, there was even time left to sign autographs for the young fans.
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Alejo Sarco has left Bayer 04 Leverkusen to join Sporting Gijón in Spain’s second division. Bayer 04 have secured a buy-back clause for the 20-year-old Argentine striker, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Borussia Mönchengladbach.
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