Hoffenheim have only lost more Bundesliga games against Bayern Munich (20) than they have against the Werkself (19), winning only seven of the 32 top-flight encounters to date. Leverkusen have won the last three in a row.
TSG have kicked off the Bundesliga season with a win and a defeat for the third year running, having beaten promoted Holstein Kiel 3-2 at home before a 3-1 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt. The last two seasons both saw them claim victory on Matchday 3, including against Bayer 04 two years ago.
Leverkusen’s defence will have to keep a very close eye on TSG’s No.27. Andrej Kramaric bagged a hat-trick against Kiel and netted again against Frankfurt. The in-form forward is also joined up front by Adam Hlozek, who swapped the BayArena for the PreZero in the summer. Haris Tabakovic is another new option in attack after finishing as joint-top scorer in Bundesliga 2 in 2023/24. However, Hoffenheim have a number of injury concerns, including vice-captain Grischa Prömel, centre-back Ozan Kabak and forward Ihlas Bebou. Find out more about Hoffenheim in our in-depth analysis.
The Nordkurve12 fan group has called for all supporters making their way to Sinsheim to travel in their Werkself kits. Some 4,000 fans are set to be at the PreZero Arena offering their support, meaning Bayer 04 have used their full allocation of tickets.
To conclude the club’s trophy tour to the USA, Bayer 04 will be hosting a watch party for today’s game at the Radegast Hall & Biergarten in Brooklyn, New York. In the afternoon, the trophies will then be on display at Saturdays Football store on Broome Street, Manhattan, before they and the club’s delegates return to Germany.
The Bayer 04 fan liaison team have put together key information on the away game in Sinsheim for all travelling Werkself fans. Find out more HERE.
The German FA (DFB) have appointed Daniel Schlager as today’s referee. The 34-year-old has previously overseen 10 fixtures involving the Werkself. His assistants are Sven Waschitzki-Günther and Arno Blos. The VAR is Sören Storks.
Werkself Radio is available for anyone unable to be at the game. The German audio broadcast starts 30 minutes before kick-off with commentary provided by Niko Hartmann Cedric Pick. In addition, the live text update service will keep fans up to date on bayer04.de and 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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