Matchday news #B04SCF: Continue our strong home form against the league leaders

Under Carles Martínez, the Werkself have so far proved unbeatable at the BayArena. The Spaniard has led his team to victory in all three of their most recent home matches – and, it's worth noting, without conceding a single goal. On Sunday, 18 October (kick-off: 15:30 CEST / live on DAZN and Werkself Radio), current league leaders SC Freiburg will make the trip to Leverkusen, but will be without their top scorer. What's more, the Werkself have won all three of their previous home matches against the Black Forest club. With a goal, Patrik Schick could not only secure a fourth consecutive victory but also set a memorable record. Meanwhile, on what will be the ‘Health Day' at the BayArena, much of the focus will be on physical wellbeing. Today's matchday news.

Health matchday: Cancer screening and more

To kick off the annual Health Weeks, Bayer 04 had already invited the public to a Health Day at the BayArena in early October. Physical wellbeing will also be a key focus at the stadium in Leverkusen during the health-themed matchday centred around the clash against the club from the Black Forest. In addition to several themed interactive stations, there will also be a half-time talk with Bayer Vital on prostate cancer screening.

New Wi-Fi at the BayArena

To kick off the 2026/27 season, the BayArena was fitted with a new Wi-Fi infrastructure. Instead of the ‘BayArena’ network, fans can now enjoy even better browsing on one of two faster networks: ‘Bayer04’ is the Wi-Fi network for modern devices and offers better bandwidth – devices that, for technical reasons, cannot connect to this network, or on which it does not appear, are offered a similarly good solution in the form of ‘Bayer04-classic’. The original ‘BayArena’ network will now be switched off for good ahead of the home game against Freiburg.

#B04SCF: match facts

SC Freiburg have had little success at the BayArena in recent times. The Black and Reds have won their last three consecutive home matches against the side from the Breisgau region and remain unbeaten in seven encounters with SCF overall. Whilst the southerners do travel to Leverkusen in first place, the Werkself, for their part, have lost just one of their last eight Bundesliga encounters against league leaders.

Patrik Schick will certainly be keen to extend this run. The Czechia international has been scoring for fun since the start of the season and, should he find the net against Freiburg, he would become the first Bayer 04 player to score in each of the first six matchdays of a Bundesliga campaign. This would see him overtake Dimitar Berbatov (2005/06 season) and Stefan Kießling (2009/10), who each scored in the first five matches of a season. However, alongside Schick, eight other Werkself players have also found the back of the net this term – the only other team in the league to have had so many different players score ahead of this matchday are Bayern Munich.

focus on scf

The visitors from Breisgau are also in top form at the moment. Having enjoyed the best start to a season in the club’s history, Freiburg find themselves top of the table for just the fifth time ever – though they've never previously managed to hold onto that position. Head coach Julian Schuster is now aiming to achieve that for the first time. The former Freiburg player has fielded the same starting XI in each of the last four Bundesliga matches. However, due to top scorer Yuito Suzuki (4 goals) being suspended after picking up two yellow cards in the last match, Schuster has been forced to change his line-up for the clash. Our in-depth opposition analysis reveals what impact SC Freiburg’s substitutes could have and where potential weaknesses for the Werkself might lie.

Werkself Live

Want to be fully up to speed ahead of the clash with the league leaders? Just take a look at the new Werkself Live! The matchday programme, which provides a concise summary of the key facts and figures about the match, is available at the BayArena. Alternatively, there is an online version available. Featured on the XXL poster this time: Jarell Quansah. HERE is the link to the ePaper.

Tribute to fan clubs at half-time

During the half-time break in the match against the Black Forest side, a number of supporters’ clubs will be recognised for their loyalty under the cross in the area around the dugouts. Bayer 04 will be paying tribute their long-standing support spanning 15, 25 and 30 years respectively, and looks forward to many more successful seasons.

WERKSELFGO: THE BAYER 04 CAR SHARE PLATFORM

With the free car share platform WERKSELFgo, travelling to Leverkusen’s home matches is now even easier and more convenient. You can form car share groups with other Bayer 04 fans, find lifts and share travel costs. How does it all work? Simply register on the platform using your Bayer 04 account, search for a lift or post a journey yourself. The passengers decide among themselves how much it should cost. Further information is available HERE.

WERKSELFgo!

#B04SCF kompakt:

Schiedsrichter: Florian Badstübner
Bayer 04-Übertragung: Werkself-Radio und Liveticker (bayer04.de & Bayer 04-App)
Stream: DAZN

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