The Werkself clearly enjoyed the short break and shared that with their followers on the various social media channels. Lucas Alario soaked up the sun in Madrid, Dominik Kohr and his wife went on a city trip to London, Joel Pohjanpalo headed for Paris, Rambo Özcan went back home to Austria and Sam Schreck had his picture taken drinking coffee in the sunshine.
Everybody returned to the training ground yesterday – with the exception of Lars Bender who was sidelined on Monday morning with a cold. Joel Pohjanpalo and Panos Retsos, whose comebacks were a highlight of last Wednesday's friendly against Ajax, both completed the warm-up sessions at the start of the week and, after their first drills with the ball along with their team-mates, they withdrew to a neighbouring pitch for individual training during the more intensive sessions.
As a result of international break, the group was below strength for the final open session 04 days before the away game at TSG Hoffenheim (Friday, 20.30 CET). The international players are set to return to Leverkusen over the next few days and, after a day off training on Tuesday, will rejoin the squad for full training on Wednesday and Thursday.
Julian Brandt, Kai Havertz and Jonathan Tah set off back to Leverkusen early on Monday. Julian Baumgartlinger and Aleksandar Dragovic have already landed in Düsseldorf after leaving the Austrian team on a flight from Tel Aviv via Munich. Tin Jedvaj, who was in action for Croatia on Sunday, did not join in training on Monday.
Lukas Hradecky is set to play for Finland on Tuesday (20.45 CET) against Armenia in a European qualifier, Adrian Stanilewicz and the Germany U20s are due to play their counterparts from Poland on Tuesday at 18.00 CET in the Elite League. Both will return to Leverkusen on Wednesday. The final player to return will be Charles Aránguiz on Thursday – after a friendly for Chile against the USA in Houston on Wednesday night (02.00 CET).
There's no question: VfB Stuttgart are one of the biggest surprises of this season and have delighted their fans with exciting, successful attacking football. After suffering a rare defeat at Bremen last weekend, third-placed VfB are looking to get back to winning ways in this Saturday's big match against the Werkself (kick-off 18:30 CEST). The visitors will be without their playmaker in midfield, though. A look at our next opponents...
Show moreWhether at school, in grassroots sports or at the football stadium – racism and discrimination of all kinds are still prevalent in our society. For this reason, Bayer 04 has been organising preventative school workshops on the subject of racism for many years. This week, one of these workshops took place at the Lise-Meitner-Gymnasium not far from the BayArena as part of the Wiesdorf district matchday - and with a prominent guest: Werkself star Jonathan Tah worked intensively with the pupils on the topic. The German champion and international also spoke about his personal experiences with racism.
Show moreBayer 04 aren’t just the new champions of Germany but are also leading the way in engaging young fans after becoming the first Bundesliga club to release its own Pixi children’s book. Captain Lukas Hradecky and Josip Stanisic presented the 24-page publication entitled ‘Ein neuer Löwe für die Werkself’ (A new lion for the Werkself) at a reading for children in the BayArena's Schwadbud.
Show moreBayer 04 visit Italian club AS Roma in the first leg of the 2023/24 UEFA Europa League semi-finals. The match takes place on Thursday 2 May (kick-off 21:00 CEST) at the Stadio Olimpico. Information on ticket sales.
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