‘That’s how they are’ is the headline for the match report in the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine and the article continues: “And Bayern win in the end: Lewandowski made it 2-1 in added time against an impressive Leverkusen side.”
The Werkself won particular recognition for the performance in the first half. "Bayer 04 approached this game with an energy and precision that no other team has shown against Bayern Munich and coach Hansi Flick," praised the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. "The Werkself restricted the record champions to 35 per cent possession. The lead made the relative strengths even clearer."
The goal is described as follows in the BILD: “Leverkusen took a quick corner on the right. Amiri sent in a long cross to the unmarked Schick who thumped the ball into the back of the champions’ net with a brilliant cracker of a volley from fourteen yards out. 1-0 to Leverkusen. That again demonstrated the new Werkself strength at set pieces.”
The Welt am Sonntag takes a look at the stats: “It was Leverkusen's ninth goal from a corner this season." The newspaper also declares: "The Munich side were fortunate on 28 minutes when a goal from Schick was ruled out due to an offside decision."
RP Online saw the half-time score of 1-1 as flattering for Bayern and not just because of that. "The Flick team only had the better of the game in the 15 minutes before half-time," said the match report. "Yet the equaliser at 1-1 from world footballer of the year Robert Lewandowski had not really been on the cards (43')."
"The equaliser gave Bayern a boost," was the view of the EXPRESS, "the visitors only posed a threat after half-time."
In contrast, the WAZ declares: "Bayern were very strong at the start of the second half but Leverkusen quickly recovered and it developed into an enthralling match that could have gone either way at any time." The final sentence of the match report may well sound rather bitter for all Werkself supporters: "But then the world footballer of the year struck again."
Four Bayer 04 players are in action at the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations being played in Morocco from 21 December to 18 January 2026: Eliesse Ben Seghir for the hosts, Edmond Tapsoba with Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Maza for Algeria and Christian Kofane with Cameroon. Updates on the AFCON matches involving Werkself players...
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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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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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The ‘year after’ the most successful year in the club's history brought many changes at Bayer 04. In an exclusive double interview with bayer04.de shortly before the Christmas break, Fernando Carro and Simon Rolfes spoke about building a new team capable of winning trophies, the work of coach Kasper Hjulmand, the young new signings who have quickly developed into key players, and their personal plans for the Christmas holidays. Their outlook for the coming year also shows that the potential is far from exhausted and ambitions remain high.
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Last-minute ecstasy, huge disappointment and a historic performance on the European stage - 2025 was a real emotional roller coaster, especially for the U19s. A rousing run in the knockout phase secured the team a place in the final of the German championships, where they lost by the narrowest of margins. Despite the departure of several key players, the young Werkself team quickly regained their usual strength and qualified for the knockout rounds in the UEFA Youth League for the first time at the end of the year. In 2025, youngsters Jeremiah Mensah and Montrell Culbreath made their debuts in the Bundesliga, the DFB Pokal and the UEFA Champions League. The other youth teams also contributed great performances and a number of trophies to the collective Black and Red success, while the successful Bayer 04 Future Kids project broke new ground. Read on for the 2025 review of the youth teams.
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