Head coach Xabi Alonso made six changes to his starting XI compared with the 1-0 home win against Mainz 05 in the week and that included the return of the keeper Lukas Hradecky and key defender Jonathan Tah. Martin Terrier also started but, shortly after providing an impressive cross to Patrik Schick on five minutes, the Frenchman had to be substituted due to injury (8'). He was replaced by Piero Hincapie.
The visitors from the Lower Rhine were well organised in defence and made it difficult for the Werkself to break into their penalty area. Robert Andrich tried a long-range effort on 20 minutes and Schick a header from a cross five minutes later. It was just after the half-hour mark that Arthur won the ball and Granit Xhaka played a through ball for Florian Wirtz to leave Ko Itakura standing before slotting the ball into the bottom right-hand corner of the net to open the scoring (32'). 1-0 was the score at half-time.
The first chance after the restart fell to Alejandro Grimaldo in a counter-attack but the BMG keeper Moritz Nicolas was able to make the save (55'). Five minutes later, Grimaldo tried to cross but the ball hit the hand of Julian Weigl in the penalty area and referee Harm Osmers pointed to the spot. Wirtz calmly converted the penalty to seal his brace and make it 2-0 (62’). The Werkself then eased off somewhat and focused on isolated attacks – as on 75 minutes. Hincapie played a great long ball to Wirtz. The latter flicked the ball on to Schick leaving the Czech with a tap-in to make it 3-0 with his twelfth goal of the season. In the closing stages, Jonas Hofmann came off the bench to make his first appearance in the new year and Tim Kleindienst netted a consolation goal for the visitors at 3-1 (90+1'). The final whistle came shortly after that and the Werkself celebrated an eleventh win in succession with their fans.
Bayer 04 are next in action in the Champions League. The Werkself are away to top Spanish side Atletico Madrid on Matchday 7 in the league phase. The match on Tuesday, 21 January, kicks off at 21.00 CET. That is followed by another top game on the road four days later, this time in the Bundesliga, away to RB Leipzig.
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Hradecky - Arthur, Tah, Tapsoba - Tella (Frimpong 63'), Xhaka (Palacios 81'), Andrich, Grimaldo (Garcia 81') - Wirtz (Hofmann 81'), Terrier (Hincapie 8’) - Schick
Borussia Mönchengladbach: Nicolas - Lainer, Itakura, Elvedi, Ullrich (Netz 75') - Reitz (Chiarodia 81’), Weigl, Sander (Fukuda 87’) - Cvancara (Plea 75'), Kleindienst, Hack (Stöger 75')
Goals: 1-0 Wirtz (32’), 2-0 Wirtz (62’ pen.), 3-0 Schick (74’), 3-1 Kleindienst (90+1’)
Yellow cards: Cvancara, Lainer
Referee: Harm Osmers (Hannover)
Attendance: 30,210 (sold out) at the BayArena
In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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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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