The match got off to an eventful start: Amine Adli kicked out at the Bochum defender Dominique Heintz and referee Tobias Welz showed him the red card after the intervention of VAR (8'). With a man down, the Werkself continued to press forwards to find a way through the Bochum defence. However, no goals were scored. At the other end, Bochum's Philipp Förster gave VfL the lead (19'). Takuma Asano doubled the lead from a corner on 34 minutes and the half-time score was 2-0. Despite great efforts to score after the restart the ball did not end up in the back of the hosts net. Instead, Kevin Stöger made it 3-0 to VfL four minutes from full-time to seal their top-flight status. Bayer 04 ended – with the help of Hertha Berlin – the 2022/23 season in sixth place and thereby secured participation in European competition next season. HERE is the match report.
Lukas Hradecky said after the game: "We didn't play well. We were in sixth place at the end of the first half of the season. We did better in the first few weeks of the Rückrunde but we did not have a good May." The captain did however find words for the once again impressive support from the 3,000 travelling Bayer 04 fans: "The fans are the heart and soul of this great club, they deserve more!"
Xabi Alonso summed up in the post-match press conference: "The red card was fair. Bochum had an extra player for 85 minutes but we created a number of chances despite being a man down. The game didn't have to end with a 3-0 scoreline." The Spaniard finished by looking forwards: "Of course, I'm rather annoyed today and there are still the repercussions of the game against Mönchengladbach. But we will get over that soon. We can't change things and we have to do better in the future. When I came, the situation was very bad. Now we have qualified for Europe again. It's very important in future that we don’t repeat the mistakes we made this season and continue to develop."
Adli, sent off on eight minutes, apologised to the team in the dressing room and posted a message on Instagram: "I'd like to apologise to my teammates, the club and, of course, the fans who support us at every game. Anyone who knows me knows that I always play with very high intensity. And this afternoon I was involved in an action that shouldn’t be part of the game. I'm the first person to allocate blame and I will do everything to ensure it doesn't happen again."
There was good news in the late introduction of Noah Mbamba (90+2’) in place of Moussa Diaby: The 18-year-old Belgium youth international, signed from Club Brugge in the winter, made his debut for the Werkself.
The Werkself had eleven shots on the VfL goal, Bochum had one more. In terms of possession, the hosts had the narrow advantage with 51%. The home side also came out on top in duels won with 58%. Pass completion for Bochum was 74%, for the Black and Reds it was 65%.
The headline in the Express: "Open goal for VfL after Adli's red card." The Rheinische Post wrote: "While Bochum witnessed a crowd invasion after staying up, Leverkusen were able to celebrate finishing sixth despite the clear defeat on the final matchday." The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger chose the headline, "Through to Europe with help of Berliners" and drew the following conclusion: "Crazy end to a crazy season that ended well for Bayer 04 Leverkusen to the complete surprise of everybody. Sixth place appeared unbelievable at the turn of the year after the poorest start in the history of the club and dropping down to seventeenth in the table.
The squad returned to Leverkusen together on Saturday night for a final team meeting. The Werkself players now start their summer break. The club will soon announce the agenda for the summer.
It was another incredibly close call in the end: The second showdown in the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship saw the #B04eSports team once again narrowly miss out on a place in the top 16 of the preliminary round – and with it, a spot in the in-person knockout stage. It was a bitter blow: Marc and Sean Landwehr again fell just short, despite being level on points with their rivals. As was the case last month, their weaker record across the twelve individual matches in the six preliminary round fixtures proved decisive.
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“They stuck with us over the past few weeks when things weren’t going so well,” said captain Edmond Tapsoba, thanking the fans for their support after the 2–1 win in Cologne and dedicating the derby victory to them. Throughout the 90 minutes, the Werkself had looked unfazed and in command, inflicting the first home defeat of the season on FC Köln. It was the sixth consecutive win against the Cologne team for Bayer 04 – head coach Carles Martínez, on the other hand, was facing the team from the neighbouring city for the first time and “now really knows what this derby win means”. The Werkself derby review.
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Following the 2–1 derby victory away at FC Köln on Bundesliga matchday 9, Edmond Tapsoba, Malik Tillman and Aleix Garcia spoke to Werkself TV...
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-1 derby win at 1. FC Köln Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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