Head coach Xabi Alonso made two changes to his starting eleven compared with the first friendly of the summer against second division SC Paderborn (1-2): Gustavo Puerta replaced Exequiel Palacios (bench) in central midfield and new signing Victor Boniface started in place of Sardar Azmoun in his debut for Bayer 04. Azmoun suffered a muscle injury in his left calf at the training camp and had to return to Leverkusen early.
The friendly against the Champions League team from La Liga was initiated together with Bayer AG in aid of the Fundación Columbus, which includes the battle against spastic paraplegia 50 (SPG 50). Children from the foundation accompanied the two teams onto the pitch ahead of kick-off and two of them carried out a symbolic kick-off on the pitch. Xabi Alonso took a lot of time out to welcome the children in person.
In front of a crowd of 17,143 in the hometown of the Bayer 04 head coach, Jeremie Frimpong had the ball in the back of the net – but provider Jonas Hofmann was offside in the build-up (2'). At the other end, the captain Lukas Hradecky made his first save on ten minutes to keep out a shot from a tight angle by Real Sociedad striker Umar Sadiq. 15 minutes into the game, Boniface had the ball in the net but the Bayer 04 new signing was offside when Puerta picked him out. The action went from end to end with Mohamed-Ali Cho aiming a shot at the far post for the hosts. However, Hradecky was able to make the save (21').
Alejandro Grimaldo hit a fine free kick from the right on the half-hour mark but the Real Sociedad keeper Alex Remiro was able to keep out the tricky shot. Remiro was on hand again two minutes later to deny a long-range effort from Puerta. The first goal to be allowed came from the opposition: A shot from Mendez from distance found its way into the top corner leaving Hradecky with no chance to make the save (42'). That meant the Werkself went in to half-time with a narrow deficit.
The second half started in heavy rain. Palacios and Jonathan Tah came off the bench to replace Puerta and Odilon Kossounou. The first decent chance of the second half fell to Florian Wirtz with a long-range shot on the hour mark that just missed the target. There was little threat to either goal at this point. Alonso made more changes that included a first team debut for U19 defender Reno Münz. There were no further goals leaving the Werkself with a narrow defeat in this charity match.
The game at Real Sociedad was the first of three friendlies in seven days. The Werkself have an away game on Wednesday at Olympic Marseille, who finished third in Ligue 1 last season. Premier League West Ham United visit Leverkusen on Saturday for the final test before the new campaign. The kick-off against the winners of the UEFA Europa Conference League last season is at 13.30 CEST (tickets available here),with the friendly being the sporting highlight of the Bayer 04 season launch.
Match stats:
Real Sociedad: Remiro (Marrero 46') - Traore (Sola 42'), Zubeldia (Gonzalez 46'), Le Normand (Rico 46'), Aihen (Pacheco 61') - Merino (Turrientes 42'), Zubimendi, Mendez (Marin 61') - Cho (Barrenetxea 61'), Sadiq (Fernandez 46’), Oyarzabal
Bayer 04: Hradecky - Frimpong (Arthur 69’), Kossounou (Tah 46'), Tapsoba (Monamay 69’), Grimaldo (Münz 69’) - Puerta (Palacios 46'), Xhaka (Mbamba 69’, Marsenic 73’) - Hofmann (Fosu-Mensah 78’), Wirtz (Amiri 69’), Adli (Aourir 78’) - Boniface (Hlozek 69’)
Goals: 1-0 Mendez (42’)
Booked: Puerta, Marsenic
Referee: Galech Apezteguia (Spain)
Attendance: 17,143 at the Reale Arena in San Sebastian
It couldn't have been any tighter! Despite winning four of six games in the online preliminary round in Showdown 1 of the VBL Club Championship 2026/27, Leverkusen eSports duo Marc and Sean Landwehr didn't make it through to the offline knockout round. Level on points (12) with seven other teams, Leverkusen were the only team with this points tally not to progress as they had the worst single-game record compared to their rivals.
Show more
Bayer 04 are away to Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb on Matchday 5 of the league phase of the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League. The game kicks off on Thursday 26 November at 18:45 CET at the Maksimir Stadium. All the information on ticket sales.
Show more
It wasn’t just on the pitch that there was cause for celebration around the Werkself’s 2–1 home win against SC Freiburg. Plenty of happy faces could be seen near the dugouts at half-time too. Once again, CEO Fernando Carro, alongside former striker and club ambassador Stefan Kießling, paid tribute to eight supporters’ clubs celebrating up to their 30th anniversary on behalf of Bayer 04.
Show more
A disciplined and impressive team performance secured a 2–1 victory for the Werkself against league leaders SC Freiburg, who had remained unbeaten across all competitions until then; two players once again stood out at the BayArena: Artisic dribbler Ibrahim Maza scored Leverkusen’s first goal himself and set up the second, whilst goal-getter Patrik Schick had set up the equaliser and netted the winner. In doing so, the Czechia international set a remarkable club record. Both head coach Carles Martínez and the media were full of praise afterwards. Maza himself was also delighted with the growing rapport with “super striker” Schick: “The more we play together, the better we understand each other.” The Werkself’s comeback secured their fourth home win in their fourth home game of the season.
Show more
