Basaksehir, managed by the former Turkey coach Abdullah Avci, have experienced a massive upturn in fortune over recent years and have broken into the leading group of the big three Istanbul clubs Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas. Last term's Süper Lig saw them finish third just three points behind champions Galatasaray and this September they are in the UEFA Europa League along with Bayer 04. Before that, they were runners-up once and finished fourth twice.
The squad has a number of internationally experienced pros: Goalkeeper Volkan Babacan, Arda Turan (100 internationals for Turkey and previously in Spain at Barcelona and Atlético Madrid), Emre (95 international caps for Turkey), Gökhan Inler (89 caps for Switzerland), Gael Clichy (18 internationals for France) and the Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor, top scorer for Basaksehirs last season with 15 goals and for many years in the Premier League at Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Arsenal. Familiar faces from the Bundesliga are the Serb Milos Jojic, signed this week from FC Köln, the Brazilian Junior Caicara (Schalke 04) plus Eljero Elia, who played for Werder Bremen and Hamburg.
Before that, Bayer 04 have friendly fixtures against SV Roßbach (18 July), Sportfreunde Siegen (21 July), Wuppertaler SV (24 July) and Fortuna Sittard (28 July). Following the training camp in Austria there is a match against Valencia (11 August).
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 3-0 win against FC Villarreal on matchday 8 in the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league phase...
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The Champions League journey continues! On the eighth and final matchday of the league phase of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26, Bayer 04 secured their place in the play-offs with a commanding 3-0 win over Villarreal. Malik Tillman put in a mature and combative performance for Leverkusen, scoring a brace (12', 35') to make it 2-0 at the break, while Alejandro Grimaldo (57') and plenty of control of the game did the rest in the second half. The draw for the Werkself's next UCL opponents will take place on Friday 30 January at 12:00 CET.
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The Leverkusen eSports team played the remaining three of the six matches in the online preliminary round of the fourth showdown in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26. RB Leipzig and SC Freiburg were among the teams with the highest goal threat, including two World Cup participants in their ranks. Although the #B04eSports players were defeated in the matches overall, nine points from the first three games last week were enough for Leverkusen to advance to the offline round in Berlin on 2 February.
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A decisive showdown awaits: The Werkself are aiming to progress to the play-off round of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League with a home win against Villarreal CF on the eighth and final matchday of the league phase. Ahead of the match on Wednesday, 28 January (kick-off: 21:00 CET), coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the importance of the game, the possible return of Edmond Tapsoba and a statement from new signing Jonas Omlin in an exclusive interview with Werkself TV. Lucas Vázquez, for his part, spoke about his role on and off the pitch as well as tomorrow’s opponents, who he often faced in Spain with Real Madrid.
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