Three Black and Red players are unavailable for this clash. Karim Bellarabi and captain Lars Bender are back on the pitch after injury but are not yet involved in full training. Central striker Lucas Alario also misses the match with his yellow card at Schalke leading to a one-match ban.
"If no more babies are born tonight then everybody else should be available for the squad," said head coach Peter Bosz with a smile at today's pre-match press conference. The Dutchman was making reference the birth of Leon Bailey’s son Leo on Sunday morning that led to his dropping out of the game at Schalke 04 late on
With three games to play, the late point in Gelsenkirchen means the Werkself hold all the aces in the battle to qualify for Europe's elite club competition. "But to keep it in our hands we have to win three times – and that starts tomorrow against Köln," declared Bosz.
To come out on top in the game against the Goats, the head coach believes it needs a "top performance". The 56-year-old added: "We have to be on top of our game – regardless of whether it's a home or away match – and whether fans are there or not. I'm completely confident we can achieve that tomorrow."
FC Köln have not won a single match since the Bundesliga restart and lost 2-1 last time out against Union Berlin. "The fact Köln have not won after the break due to the coronavirus pandemic is not important. The same applies to Schalke 04 and we all saw what happened in the end," warned Bosz, who also made it clear: "Of course, it's also about making amends for us: It's a derby – that's very important for our fans and for us too. We lost the game earlier in the season because we were poor. We have to be better tomorrow. It all depends on us."
Match information:
Broadcasters: Sky and Werkself Radio (bayer04.de)
Referee: The referee will be announced on the day of the game
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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