Die Welt declares: "Both teams set out to get on the front foot from the start and provided top entertainment."
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung opts for the headline 'A crazy Sunday afternoon' and reports: "Matches like these, that filled matchday 17 in the Bundesliga with goalmouth action galore, brings fans to the stadiums. With more clinical finishing, the game could have ended with a 6-6 scoreline – with the Leverkusen having a slight advantage. The opening goal scored by the Werkself, one of the many special moments in this memorable encounter, was described as follows: "After a wonderful cross from Lars Bender, Julian Brandt produced a perfect volley to score. The beautiful sound of a footballer striking the ball cleanly and with power and it hitting the back of the net was clearly to be heard in a stadium with little atmosphere."
The Kölner Stadt Anzeiger reports: "Heiko Herrlich left the HDI Arena with a slightly hoarse voice. The Bayer 04 Leverkusen coach and 32,800 spectators witnessed a memorable match in Hanover. 90 exciting, and partly crazy, minutes between (Hannover) 96 and the Werkself ended all square at 4-4. 'A result like that is a cross to bear for us as coaches because, of course, we like to see clean sheets,' said Herrlich. 'If I was to analyse everything in detail with the substitutions and the errors then we'd be here till the morning'.",
The headline in the Kölnische Rundschau: 'Eight goal spectacular'
The summary in the Express: "Incredible, eight goals in a fantastically entertaining Sunday match."
The Bild Zeitung reads, as befits the season: 'Festive eight goal party' and sums up: "A gift of a game! Seven days before 24 December, Hannover and Leverkusen gifted all followers of football eight goals and a wonderful match."
After being nominated for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025, Martin Terrier's wonderful strike for the opener against FC Köln is now also up for selection for the ARD Sportschau Goal of the Month award for December 2025. Bayer 04 fans have until 19:00 CET on 10 January to vote for the French forward.
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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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"In every ending lies a new beginning" is a well-known saying. This phrase has probably never been more apt at Bayer 04. After winning the Bundesliga in 2023/24 and finishing as runners-up in 2024/25, the summer was the most eventful ever in terms of transfers. Over ten players and the coach, including the coaching staff, left the club. A lot of the heroes of the double-winning side began a new chapter. It was the end of an era. And at the same time the beginning of a new, very exciting and promising chapter for Leverkusen. The Werkself welcomed more than a dozen new arrivals, including experienced title-winners and young talents, to build a new "foundation for a successful team capable of winning titles" under the Bayer Cross, as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. A new spirit, a new hunger, a new story was to be created. Bayer04.de looks back at the first few months of this story and the final act of the preseason.
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43 points at the end of the last Bundesliga season were not only more than ever before for the Bayer 04 Women, but also led to a record fourth-place finish. That was followed by a Hinrunde with many more victories, but also some setbacks. In an interview with bayer04.de, sporting director Achim Feifel takes stock at the end of the year.
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With their wonderful goals, Martin Terrier and Florian Wirtz are up for the Bundesliga Goal of the Year 2025. Voting for fans will run exclusively via the official Bundesliga app until Sunday, 4 January.
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