Werkself thrash Union Berlin 4-0 in first home game

Bayer 04 produced a dominant and impressive 4-0 win over Union Berlin as they picked up three points in their first home game of the 2026/27 Bundesliga campaign. Exequiel Fernández opened the scoring after only 41 seconds, with Facundo Medina doubling the lead before the half-hour mark. Patrik Schick and Ibrahim Maza continued the procession in the second period, in which Moussa Diaby came on for his first Leverkusen appearance for over three years.

Taking charge of his first competitive home fixture, Carles Martínez made two changes to his defence from the team that started the 3-2 loss at Elversberg as Medina and Jarell Quansah came in for Loïc Badé and Lucas Vázquez.

Ahead inside a minute

Carried by the support from the BayArena crowd and their impressive pre-match tifo, Leverkusen got off to a blistering start as Miguel Gutiérrez played back a Malik Tillman cross for Fernández to turn home from close range with less than a minute on the clock. The Werkself kept pushing for more as Schick saw two headers go wide.

The second goal finally came just before the 30-minute mark with another assist from Gutiérrez, this time crossing from wide on the left for Medina to head in on his first start for the club. Fernández fired a further attempt over the bar as it remained 2-0 after 45 minutes.

More to enjoy in second half

Bayer 04 quickly snuffed out any hope of an Union fightback when Quansah’s low cross found Schick to turn in just three minutes after the restart. There were more reasons for the BayArena to celebrate as Maza curled in the fourth after 66 minutes, before Diaby took to the Leverkusen turf for the first time since May 2023 – and very nearly marked the occasion for a goal.

Robert Andrich came on for his 200th Werkself appearance as Martínez’s team saw the game out. Quansah and Aleix García nearly added further gloss to the scoreline but it remained 4-0 for Bayer 04’s first win of the Bundesliga season.

Augsburg away to begin busy spell

Leverkusen’s next game takes them to Augsburg on Saturday, 12 September (15:30 CEST) before kicking off their UEFA Europa League campaign at home to Celje on Wednesday, 16 September (21:00). RB Leipzig are then the visitors to the BayArena the following Sunday (15:30).

Match stats:

Bayer 04: Flekken - Quansah, Tapsoba, Medina (Badé 70'), Gutiérrez (Vázquez 83') - Fernández (Andrich 70'), Garcia - Moreira, Tillman (Diaby 67'), Maza - Schick (Kofane 67')

Union Berlin: Rønnow - Juranovic (Trimmel 74'), Uduokhai, Van Den Bosch, Rothe - Kemlein (Haberer 63'), Aebischer (Jeong 63'), Burcu (Schäfer 79'), Khedira - Ljubicic, Latte Lath (Skarke 63')

Goals: 1-0 Fernández (1'), 2-0 Medina (28'), 3-0 Schick (48'), 4-0 Maza (66')

Yellow cards: Gutiérrez, Maza - Uduokhai, Van Den Bosch

Referee: Robin Braun

Attendance: 29,629 (home section sold out) at the BayArena