Until Sunday’s departure for North Germany, the Werkself are commuting in two coaches between the training ground on Bismarckstraße and the hotel where they eating and being looked after, holding meetings and also spending their leisure time. “In this crisis there are people facing difficult challenges. Complaining and having fun always have their place in a football team. But it’s going well and we’ll easily get through this week,” explained Hradecky in an online media interview after today’s trading session.
The Finn prefers to concentrate on the forthcoming restart in Germany’s top flight. The level in the sessions is already very high in spite of the many weeks without full training sessions. “You can feel everybody’s excitement. We’re in a good position in the table and want to take that momentum into the rest of the season,” said the 30-year-old who highlighted the necessary increased communication on the pitch. “It was an important issue for us before the games were suspended and is not even more significant with the quiet of the stadiums with games played behind closed doors.”
The 1.92 metre giant does not yet know what sort of atmosphere awaits him and his teammates. The away game at Bremen’s Wohninvest Weserstadion will be the first match behind closed doors in Hradecky’s career to date. “Of course, we would prefer to play in front of fans. But, on Monday, it might be a slight advantage for us that Bremen won’t be playing in front of a full house at home,” explained the number one keeper who is hoping for more luck on the pitch for the Black and Reds compared with the game earlier in the season.
In the 2-2 draw at the end of October in front of a sold-out BayArena, Hradecky had to pick the ball out of his net twice from deflected shots from Milot Rashica (40’) and Davy Klaassen (48’). “That match was probably during our poorest phase of this season,” said the Finn. For the match in Bremen, he is hoping Werder feel “a bit more pressure” given their current position in the table – Bremen are 17th at the moment. Hradecky was however unable to make a prediction of whether favourites or underdogs would have more wins in games behind closed doors.
The Werkself keeper is in positive mood ahead of restarting the season with his team on Monday and rounding off matchday 26: “We will watch everything on TV at the hotel at the weekend. And after the games, I’ll definitely ask my former teammates at Frankfurt how it was so we’re prepared.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into the 2025/26 Bundesliga season with another partner in the Sponsors Club. The previous Executive Box partner pure.energy has extended their commitment and taken the established partnership with the current German runners-up to the next highest level. The newly defined cooperation between Bayer 04 and pure.energy is set to run for two years to 30 June 2027.
Show moreSide-by-side with Bayer 04 Idol Rudi Völler, the Werkself women's team player Carlotta Wamser campaigned for amateur football in the community of Hürtgen in the district of Düren. As part of a VIP discussion group joining together for the launch of the DFB campaign ‘Punktespiel 2.0’, Germany international Wamser, DFB director of professional football Völler plus DFB president Bernd Neuendorf and DFB vice-president Peter Frymuth talked about the new club campaign organised by the German Football Association (DFB) at the FC Grenzwacht Hürtgen clubhouse.
Show moreBayer 04 player Carlotta Wamser is part of a VIP group joining together for the launch of the DFB campaign Punktespiel 2.0. The Germany international, who signed for the Werkself in the summer, will be speaking tonight (Monday) alongside former Leverkusen managing director sport Rudi Völler, now the current DFB sporting director, plus DFB president Bernd Neuendorf and DFB vice-president Peter Frymuth at the FC Grenzwacht Hürtgen club house about the new clubs campaign launched by the German Football Association (DFB).
Show moreThe Werkself are away to FC St. Pauli on Matchday 5 in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The game at the Millerntor Stadion will be played on Saturday, 27 September with the kick-off at 15:30 CEST. Read on for information on ticket sales.
Show moreAfter seven days in Rieden, Bavaria, Bayer 04 Women returned to Leverkusen on Saturday. With a lot of intensive training sessions on the pitch and a high-quality friendly against Bundesliga runners-up VfL Wolfsburg (2-3) in their legs, the Werkself party left the Hotel Gut Matheshof with a lot of valuable insights. Head coach Roberto Pätzold discussed the key points from the training camp.
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