
Xabi Alonso made five changes to the team that started last week’s 1-1 draw at St. Pauli, including Matej Kovar in goal. Augsburg had lost only one of their last 14 Bundesliga games but were unable to get to grips with Leverkusen’s fluid movement and passing.
The reigning champions got their reward after just 14 minutes when Granit Xhaka, Florian Wirtz and Nathan Tella combined before setting up Schick, who fired the ball – via a slight deflection – under the crossbar for his 19th goal of the campaign. The ball was in the Augsburg net again 10 minutes later when Tella headed in a Wirtz cross, but it was ruled out for offside. The Werkself kept playing their game but lacked the final ball in their search for a second. That finally came in the first minute of added time when Buendia came inside from the left and picked out the far bottom corner with a curling effort.







The hosts kept up the pressure after the restart and had the first effort of the second half through Wirtz. Augsburg’s best chance fell to Samuel Essende, who failed to hit the target from a tight angle. Further opportunities came and went for Alexis Claude-Maurice and Phillip Tietz without really testing Kovar. At the other end, substitute Jonas Hofmann had a crack and Amine Adli had a headed effort off the bench as well as the game ended with three deserved points for Leverkusen.







Bayer 04’s next game takes them to Freiburg a week on Sunday at 5.30pm CEST. The final home fixture of the season is then against Borussia Dortmund the following Sunday at 3.30pm. The curtain comes down on the campaign in Mainz the Saturday after that.
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Kovar - Arthur (Frimpong 86'), Tah, Tapsoba - Tella (Hincapie 63'), Andrich, Xhaka, Grimaldo - Wirtz (Garcia 82'), Buendía (Hofmann 63') - Schick (Adli 63')
Augsburg: Dahmen - Matsima, Gouweleeuw, Zesiger - Wolf (Koudossou 55'), Jakic, Onyeka, Giannoulis (Gumny 55') - Rexhbecaj (Kömür 55'), Claude-Maurice (Jensen 81') - Essende (Tietz 71')
Goals: 1-0 Schick (14'), 2-0 Buendia (45'+1)
Yellow cards: Zesiger
Referee: Christian Dingert
Attendance: 29,563 at the BayArena

This fan meeting got off to a rather unexpected start. On Sunday afternoon, the Bayer 04 managing directors had just welcomed the fans present at the team hotel for the traditional get-together at the training camp when Fernando Carro’s phone rang. The CEO, glancing towards managing director sport Simon Rolfes with a smile, said: “We’ll just have to answer that quickly.” When asked by the fans what the call was actually about, the pair left it open with a wink. Instead, Carro and Rolfes then spent over an hour happily answering the fans’ many other questions.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have agreed Kerim Alajbegovic’s transfer to Italian record champions Juventus. The club brought the 18-year-old attacking player back to Leverkusen this summer via a buy-back option, following a season at Red Bull Salzburg. Until his move to Austria, the Bosnia international had been playing for Bayer 04’s Under-19s.
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A warm welcome to the Weimarer Land, Bayer 04! The Werkself moved into their accommodation for this year’s training camp on Saturday evening. In Blankenhain, Thuringia, head coach Carles Martínez’s team have a programme of gruelling training sessions – several of which will be open to fans – and team-building activities lined up for the next six days. We’ll be following the Werkself up close and providing you with exclusive insights, quotes, photos and videos from the training camp.
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With 22 days to go until the start of the Bundesliga campaign, the Bayer 04 Women’s team have gained a fresh boost of confidence. In a friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk on Saturday afternoon, coach Roberto Pätzold’s team secured a 1–0 win. Lobke Loonen (20’) scored the winner for the Black and Reds at the Kurtekotten training centre.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of the 3-0 victory in the friendly match against Rot-Weiss Essen...
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