Today's match brings together the team with the best home record against the side with the current best away record. While BVB are unbeaten at home in the league for the last eleven games and are top of the home form table, the Werkself are on a run of 24 Bundesliga away games unbeaten having completed 2024 without a single league defeat on the road.
BVB are on another long run. Since 2004, Borussia Dortmund are unbeaten both in the first Bundesliga match of a new year (15 wins, five draws) as well as in Friday home games (30 wins, nine draws). Both are current records in the history of the Bundesliga.
With a 3-1 victory away to VfL Wolfsburg in the final game of last year, the team under head coach Nuri Sahin picked up another three important points before the winter break as they moved up to sixth in the table to keep in touching distance with the Champions League spots. It was the first away win of the season. With room for improvement away from home contrasting with strength on their own turf there is a lack of consistency overall in the BVB performances. Nuri Sahin said: "We've had too many ups and downs. I expect me and my team to be more consistent." Further information on Borussia Dortmund can be found in our lowdown on the next opponents.
The Black and Reds can look forward to strong support in the first competitive match in the new calendar year. 8,000 supporters will fill the away section at the clash with BVB. The Bayer 04 Fan Liaison team have compiled key information for the away game in Dortmund for the travelling Leverkusen support. HERE is the fan information.
There will be a minute's silence before the kick-off at tonight’s top match for the long-standing BVB keeper and former goalkeeping coach Wolfgang 'Teddy' de Beer. The former football player passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 60 on 30 December. The club legend won nine trophies with BVB – as a goalkeeper, reserve keeper and goalkeeping coach.
The German Football Association (DFB) has appointed Tobias Stieler as the referee for the opening fixture on Bundesliga Matchday 16. The 43-year-old referee has previously been in charge of 30 games involving the Werkself (24 wins, three draws, three defeats). Stieler's assistant referees are Christof Günsch and Frederick Assmuth with Robert Schröder in action as the VAR official.
The match will be broadcast live on free TV by Sat. 1 as well as by Sky on pay TV. As ever, supporters unable to be at the match can follow the game on Werkself Radio. The audio broadcast starts 30 minutes before kick-off with commentary provided by Niko Hartmann and Cedric Pick. In addition, the live text update service will keep fans up-to-date. Both Werkself Radio and the live text update service are available at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app.
Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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With their wonderful goals, Martin Terrier and Florian Wirtz are up for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025. Voting for fans will run exclusively via the official Bundesliga app until Sunday, 4 January.
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The ‘year after’ the most successful year in the club's history brought many changes at Bayer 04. In an exclusive double interview with bayer04.de shortly before the Christmas break, Fernando Carro and Simon Rolfes spoke about building a new team capable of winning trophies, the work of coach Kasper Hjulmand, the young new signings who have quickly developed into key players, and their personal plans for the Christmas holidays. Their outlook for the coming year also shows that the potential is far from exhausted and ambitions remain high.
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Last-minute ecstasy, huge disappointment and a historic performance on the European stage - 2025 was a real emotional roller coaster, especially for the U19s. A rousing run in the knockout phase secured the team a place in the final of the German championships, where they lost by the narrowest of margins. Despite the departure of several key players, the young Werkself team quickly regained their usual strength and qualified for the knockout rounds in the UEFA Youth League for the first time at the end of the year. In 2025, youngsters Jeremiah Mensah and Montrell Culbreath made their debuts in the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the UEFA Champions League. The other youth teams also contributed great performances and a number of trophies to the collective Black and Red success, while the successful Bayer 04 Future Kids project broke new ground. Read on for the 2025 review of the youth teams.
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