The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger writes under the category of "That was good", that the Werkself created "a number of decent attacks" above all in the first half. Most of the attacking moves involved Kerem Demirbay, who "was able to build on his good performance in the victory against Frankfurt. Again and again, he found gaps in the Bremen defence and exploited them with accurate passes."
The Rheinische Post headline after the 0:0 at Werder Bremen reads, "Leverkusen miss out on Champions League." As Borussia Dortmund beat RB Leipzig 3-2 at the same time on Saturday, the Werkself cannot mathematically finish in the top four. In the race to qualify for the Europa League, the team under head coach Hannes Wolf gained a point on their rivals: Borussia Mönchengladbach suffered a 6-0 defeat against the champions from Munich and Union Berlin lost 3-0 to VfL Wolfsburg. That means the gap to seventh place with two games to play is now five points – and the goals difference is clearly in favour of the Black and Reds.
The RP as usual assesses the performances of the individual Werkself players. This time Jonathan Tah, Aleksandar Dragovic and Edmond Tapsoba were given the second highest mark of 2, goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky the same mark with a small minus. Creative player Demirbay was also awarded a 2. According to RP, he was "full of good ideas" and he also played numerous intelligent passes.
The dominant themes in the report in the Bild-Zeitung were the physical challenges by the hosts as well as the resulting knocks for the Leverkusen players: "Amiri went off in pain after being fouled (Eren Dinkci brought him down in added time and was shown the red card, ed.). And his Leverkusen teammates Daley Sinkgraven (knee), Kerem Demirbay (ankle) and Leon Bailey (nasty kick from Sargent on three minutes – suspected broken toe) picked up injuries."
Werder Bremen’s Jiri Pavlenka "secured a point" according to the report in kicker. The best chance apart from the offside goal from Florian Wirtz (35’) fell to left-back Wendell but the Brazilian shot straight at the Werder keeper on 81 minutes when well-placed.
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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A bitter end to the fifth showdown of the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship as the #B04eSports team failed to take any points in the three remaining matches of the preliminary online round of the fifth and final showdown, missing out on the offline round. They can no longer take points in the overall table. Bayer 04 slipped out on the top eight, so direct participation in the final event for the German Club Championship is no longer possible, with Bayer 04 having to contest the play-offs.
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