
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.

The Bayer 04 women’s team secured a win in the friendly during the international break. Without a total of eight international players, coach Roberto Pätzold’s team defeated Bundesliga 2 side Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1 at the Kurtekotten Training Centre, thanks to goals from Lobke Loonen (1’, penalty), Caroline Kehrer (41') and Valentina Mädl (66').
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Bayer 04 will have to manage without striker Christian Kofane in the coming weeks. The 20-year-old sustained a muscle injury to his left thigh on international duty with the Cameroon national team during the recent international break. This will prevent him from playing in the upcoming Werkself matches.
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FSV Mainz 05 went into the international break on the back of an away win at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Currently sixth in the table, the Rheinhessen side – who have been impressive on the road – now aim to continue their good start to the Bundesliga campaign at home when they face the Werkself on Saturday, 10 October (kick-off: 15:30 CEST). In terms of squad selection, Urs Fischer once again has more options at his disposal. Up front, the Mainz coach is likely to continue relying on what is currently the league’s most successful strike partnership. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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Exciting experiences and exclusive insights into the Werkself and the BayArena awaited the young footballers from the BA04 Football Academy Guangzhou in China during their visit to the Rhineland this week. As well as taking part in a joint training session with the Bayer 04 Football Academy, the youngsters marvelled at the Bundesliga club’s stadium during a guided tour. The highlight of the visit was a private press conference with former Bayer 04 striker Stefan Kießling, during which he shared tips from his own career with the young players. On Saturday afternoon, 10 October, the group will round off their visit by supporting the Werkself in the away match in Mainz.
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Fans ask, Carolin Simon answers: As part of Bayer 04’s second Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit, the Leverkusen captain took questions from the community. The full-back, who returned to the club this summer after ten years away, set aside an hour and a half for the Q&A session with fans, offering a very personal insight into, amongst other things, her daily life as a footballer and her role as captain, as well as her passion for Pokémon.
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