The battling 2-1 win for the Werkself at Wolfsburg again demonstrates the ability of head coach Roger Schmidt’s team to take blows and fight back. Bayer 04 succeeded in coming back from behind to win a match for the third time in the current Bundesliga campaign. The previous two victories were against Hamburg SV and FSV Mainz 05 when hat-tricks from Joel Pohjanpalo and Chicharito turned the games round. Those nine points are the highest number in the league and Leverkusen were the most successful team last season in this respect, picking up 19 points after going behind (five wins, four draws).
The boost from an important match, played with great determination, comes at exactly the right time in a busy week of fixtures that sees the Werkself take on Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League on Wednesday before returning to Bundesliga action on Saturday with a home fixture against Darmstadt 98. Bayer 04 set off to London on Tuesday from Cologne/Bonn Airport. There will be no lack of support for the Werkself in Britain’s capital: A large number of the players’ and coaches’ wives and girlfriends will be there along with the Bayer 04 Veterans team plus some 2,000 fans.
World-famous Wembley stadium
They are all looking forward to Wednesday night’s clash at the legendary Wembley Stadium opened in 2007 – in exactly the same spot as the historical arena opened in 1923 and the stage for the Olympic Games in 1948, the World Cup Final in 1966 and the Euro 96 Final. It was demolished in 2003 to make way for the new stadium. Wembley, with a capacity of 90,000, has twice hosted the Champions League Final: In 2011 between Barcelona and Manchester United (3-1) and in 2013 between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich(1-2). This season has seen the start of construction work at Spurs home ground of White Hart Lane and that means that Tottenham will play all their home Champions League games at Wembley this term and in the 2017/18 season all home games will be played at Wembley. The new White Hart Lane will have a capacity of 61,000 (currently 36,000). The stadium will be ready for the start of the 2018/19 campaign.
Spurs remain unbeaten in Premier League
Spurs are still the only team in the Premier League yet to lose a match this season. However, the team coached by Mauricio Pochettino have stuttered a bit lately. On Saturday, they drew 1-1 with reigning champions Leicester City with the Dutchman Vincent Janssen putting them ahead from the penalty spot. Tottenham are currently fifth in the English top flight, three points behind leaders Manchester City, and their next outing in the league is the North London derby against Arsenal on Sunday.
The Werkself U19 team also have great plans for the trip to London. The team coached by Markus von Ahlen and Iraklis Metaxas are looking for a result to follow up the 3-1 victory against Spurs in Leverkusen to set themselves up with a good chance of making the knockout stages of the Youth League. That match kicks off at 18.00 CET on Wednesday.
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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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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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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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
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