In contrast to Alario, the Bayer 04 players in Leverkusen trained in the rain this morning in view of the BayArena. The Werkself stadium was lit up in purple last night – for an important reason: Bayer 04 were showing their solidarity with the doctors, nurses and parents of premature children at the Leverkusen Clinic, which the club has had a partnership with for many years. The BayArena was lit up from 17.00 to 22.00 marking yesterday's World Prematurity Day and was in good company with the Empire State Building and Niagara Falls.
Thanks to the 4-0 victory over Belarus, Germany are through to next years European Championship finals – now they are looking to win the group. Three points against Northern Ireland on Tuesday night (kick-off at 20.45 CET in Frankfurt, live on RTL) would see Germany reach their targets with the Werkself duo Jonathan Tah and Nadiem Amiri on board. The other Bayer 04 pros in the Euro 2020 finals, Julian Baumgartlinger, Aleksandar Dragovic (both Austria) and Lucas Hradecky (Finland), can be relaxed going into the final matchday of the qualifiers: Both Finland, who play Greece tonight (kick-off: 20.45 CET, live on DAZN), and Austria (Tuesday at 20.45 CET in Latvia, live on DAZN) are both set to finish second in their groups..
After coming on as a substitute for Germany in the game against Belarus, Luca Waldschmidt had to go off again just seven minutes later. The 23-year-old collided with the visitors’ keeper Alexander Gutor and today had to undergo an operation on a facial fracture. During the week, further investigations are to be made on an injured right knee and ankle. That means the second highest scorer for Freiburg, with four goals to date, will almost certainly be unavailable for the game against Bayer 04 on Saturday (23 November, kick-off: 15.30 CET) as will the suspended Vincenzo Grifo.
After a successful start to the season, the Werkself eSports player Kai 'Deto' Wollin announced the play-offs as the target for the season in his recent interview. The 31-year-old and his partner Fabian 'B04_DUBZJE' de Cae could pick up important points tonight: The duo, representing Bayer 04 in the Virtual Bundesliga (the VBL), play third from bottom FC St Pauli at 18.00 CET and league leaders VfB Stuttgart at 20.45 CET. Bayer 04 are currently seventh in the table.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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