Everything looked so good in the first 25 minutes: Patrik Schick opened the scoring on five minutes for the Werkself with nine changes compared with the 1-0 defeat in Budapest. The hosts struggled at first with the high tempo of the third-placed team from Leverkusen and the lead doubled to 2-0: Schick converted a penalty following a handball by the Eintracht Frankfurt player Djibril Sow (22').
However, Eintracht woke up from the kick-off after the second goal of the game and were like a different side from that point. Tuta (23') and Jesper Lindström (30') levelled before half-time. Evan Ndicka (50') and Kristijan Jakic (66') turned the game on its head to give the Eagles a 4-2 lead with Sow netting the final goal for the 5-2 scoreline on 76 minutes. The 11,500 home fans at the Deutsche Bank Park celebrated moving up to ninth place while the Werkself remained third at the end of matchday 15.
Werkself players clearly expressed their opinions after the final whistle. Skipper Lukas Hradecky declared: "Everybody has to ask himself today whether he really wanted to win every ball. I feel we weren't fully with it today. We lacked aggression, our performance wasn't good." Midfield dynamo Robert Andrich assessed the performance of his team after conceding the first goal as "a catastrophe. It felt like we didn't win any more challenges. It wasn't a good performance by the whole team today."
Head coach Gerardo Seoane identified a good start – "with and without the ball." However, the game turned round after that. The 43-year-old Swiss coach added: "We missed our ability to win challenges and be confident on the ball. The team lost their heads a bit and Frankfurt were on fire."
The league's best starters again struck early at the Deutsche Bank Park. No team in the history of the Bundesliga have scored more goals than Bayer 04 (11) this term in the first 15 minutes over the first 15 matchdays of a season.
Patrik Schick also clocked up goals number 13 and 14. The Czech Republic centre forward remains the second highest goalscorer in the Bundesliga and is only two behind Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich). Moreover: The second goal from Schick represents two milestones. On the one hand, it was the 5,000th penalty in the Bundesliga. The Leverkusen player was also the 1,000th scorer from the spot in the top-flight as he had never taken a penalty before.
One negative for the Werkself's game against TSG Hoffenheim on Wednesday. Right-back Jeremie Frimpong picked up a fifth yellow card in the current Bundesliga campaign.
This age-old wisdom can certainly be applied to yesterday's game for the Werkself. The Seoane team had 56% possession plus 54% of challenges won. In turn, Eintracht Frankfurt were clearly more dangerous in front of goal – logical with a 5-2 win. Eintracht had 17 shots on goal compared with 11 for the Black and Reds. And another reason for success from a Frankfurt perspective: The Oliver Glasner lads ran a good seven kilometres more than their visitors.
"The first away defeat of the season was a punch in the stomach!" – was the introduction in the report from the Bild Zeitung. But there was also comment on the convincing start by the Werkself: "At the same time, Leverkusen looked really good early on."
The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger rated the performances of the Bayer 04 players as usual. Double goalscorer Patrik Schick was awarded a 2.5, captain and former Frankfurt player in goal for the Seoane team a 3.5. Those were the best Black and Red marks on the day. Schick was given a mark of 2 in the Rheinische Post.
For the Werkself, it is important to quickly focus on the way ahead as the next in-form team provide the opposition in two days: The Black and Reds are at home on Wednesday, 15 December, against fourth-placed TSG Hoffenheim. The kick-off at the BayArena is at 20.30 CET. The final match in this calendar year follows next weekend: Bayer 04 are away to fifth-placed SC Freiburg on Sunday, 19 December (kick-off: 15.30 CET).
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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A bitter end to the fifth showdown of the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship as the #B04eSports team failed to take any points in the three remaining matches of the preliminary online round of the fifth and final showdown, missing out on the offline round. They can no longer take points in the overall table. Bayer 04 slipped out on the top eight, so direct participation in the final event for the German Club Championship is no longer possible, with Bayer 04 having to contest the play-offs.
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