On training ground number one at the BayArena, Alonso greeted the Werkself squad plus eight outfield players and three goalkeepers from the youth teams. The Spanish head coach had to manage without the players recently away on international duty in Amine Adli, Sardar Azmoun, Adam Hlozek, Lukas Hradecky, Exequiel Palacios, Patrick Pentz, Edmond Tapsoba and Florian Wirtz as well as the two new signings Jonas Hofmann and Granit Xhaka.
"Jonas and Granit have a huge amount of experience and are important components we need for our team," said sporting managing director Simon Rolfes in response to a question after training about the two recently signed midfielders.
The injured players Patrik Schick, Robert Andrich, Piero Hincapie and goalkeeper Niklas Lomb also missed the opening session (see Werkself injury update). Odilon Kossounou, who missed the run-in at the end of last season with a thigh injury, did return for the start of preseason to complete parts of full training.
The action on the pitch started at 10.00 CEST. The 90-minute session started with a warm-up routine followed by passing practice. Several hundred fans came, including the children at the Bayer 04 Soccer School, to watch the Leverkusen players at their first session of the new season. The highlight came after training session: selfies and group photos with the players plus autographs on shirts, rucksacks, trousers and elsewhere.
Anybody attending tomorrow's open training session on Wednesday 12 July has the opportunity to secure the new Bayer 04 home shirt for the coming season. This is available from 10.00 CEST from the fan shop at the BayArena and following training Bayer 04 fans can have their new shirts signed by Werkself players.
For the third time in a row, the Leverkusen eSports players have made it through to the final round of the VBL Club Championship. From 7 to 8 March, they will compete for the German Club Championship at XPERION in Hamburg. At the start of the final round, they face Hamburger SV in the Round of 16. The match starts at 19:30 CET on Saturday, 7 March and will be broadcast live on the VBL Twitch channel. The eSports preview.
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"We played with pace and patience today. That was the decisive factor," said managing director sport Simon Rolfes following the 1-0 win at Hamburger SV in the rearranged match on Wednesday night. Although the Werkself still had room for improvement in terms of capitalising on their chances against the Red Shorts, they produced a different display to last time out and were rewarded for a concentrated performance over 90 minutes. The Werkself review features reaction to the game, including from a happy starting XI debutant, as well as the match stats.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 1-0 win in rearranged match at Hamburger SV on Matchday 17 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...
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The second attempt was a successful one: the Werkself won 1-0 at Hamburger SV in the rearranged Bundesliga Matchday 17 encounter. Head coach Kasper Hjulmand's side dominated play from the start and eventually scored the winning goal through Christian Kofane in the 73rd minute.
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