
The clash between the Albiceleste and Croatia remained goalless for over 30 minutes before the Argentina captain Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot (34'). Julian Álvarez doubled the lead before half-time on 39 minutes and the South American striker went on to make it 3-0 on 69 minutes.
Werkself player Exequiel Palacios replaced Rodrigo de Paul on 74 minutes and he helped to secure the result that puts the Albiceleste in a World Cup final for the sixth time.
In the 2022 World Cup final on Saturday 17 December (kick-off: 16.00 CET), Palacios and Co. will play the winners of the second semi-final between France and Morocco. That game kicks off at 20.00 CET tonight Wednesday 14 December.
Sardar Azmoun with Iran and Piero Hincapie with Ecuador went out of the competition at the group stage of the 2022 World Cup. Jeremie Frimpong and the Netherlands lost 3-2 in the quarter-finals against finalists Argentina.

Strengthening the Bayer 04 Leverkusen youth teams: Konstantinos Kotsifakis will join the Werkself from Bundesliga 2 club Hertha Berlin for the 2026/27 season, where he will be a permanent member of the Leverkusen U19 coaching set-up. The German-Greek will also take on an operational role in coaching the Bayer 04 Future Team. The 29-year-old was most recently head coach of the U17s at Hertha Berlin.
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Another award for the Bayer 04 head groundsman and staff: After coming top in the 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2024/25 seasons, the BayArena pitch came second in the Bundesliga Pitch of the Year ranking for the 2025/26 season. VfL Wolfsburg secured the top spot this year, with TSG Hoffenheim in third place.
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Opening opponents, derby weekends, the opponents in the season finale: This information and more will be available to Bayer 04 fans on Thursday, 2 July, when the 2026/27 Bundesliga fixture list is published.
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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