
The 49-year-old Argentinian highlighted the strengths of the Werkself: "They are a team with very good players, they play very attacking and fast football." However, those qualities were not decisive in the first meeting: Alvaro Morata came off the bench to score the only goal of the game on 78 minutes for the Spanish side with a header.
The 27-year-old could well be in the starting line-up with his four goals in the last four games as could central defender Mario Hermoso, who said at the press conference: "We want to play and we’ll treat the match as if it's a final." And moving the pre-match training session from the BayArena to the Ulrich Haberland Stadium, due to it being the fourth home match in twelve days, was not a negative factor for the Madrid side. "We've heard we won't be able to train in the stadium tonight. But that doesn't bother us. Our mentality is good," said the 24-year-old summer signing Hermoso, who played for Espanyol last season.
Simeone looked at an aspect of the game that has occupied the Werkself for several matches: conversion of chances. "I can explain one situation after another to you as reasons why we haven't scored. But what we are really missing is clinical finishing," declared the Argentinian.

Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 4-0 win at SGS Essen on the 24th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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After matchday 31 and the 2-1 derby win in Cologne, one thing is certain: Bayer 04 will at least compete in the UEFA Europa League in the coming 2026/27 campaign. But the Werkself want more. Looking at the race for Champions League qualification and the remaining three league fixtures, including against direct rivals, bayer04.de outlines the possible scenarios in the season run-in.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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