"There's a huge amount of anticipation," revealed captain Lars Bender at the pre-match press conference ahead of the first Black and Red Champions League match after a 917-day wait for the return to the European stage. The 30-year-old – the second most experienced player in the Bayer 04 squad with 26 Champions League appearances behind his twin brother Sven on 27 – made clear the great importance of starting the competition with a win. "Our primary target is to go through the group stage. My experience tells me you have to win your home games to do that," said the Werkself number eight before quickly adding: "And tomorrow is a home game – we want to get going straightaway with a win."
The most important thing is to forget the 4-0 defeat in the Bundesliga away to runners-up Borussia Dortmund. "I said at the weekend we have to get over that. And look forwards," said Lars Bender. "The Champions League is another competition. There haven't been any games so far so we can approach it with great anticipation," said the Werkself skipper ahead of of the first game against the three-time Russian champions and current domestic cup holders.
Peter Bosz, sitting alongside Lars Bender on the top table, does not see Lokomotiv Moscow as the weakest opponents in the group: "There are no easy opponents in the Champions League. It's our job to beat (Lokomotiv) Moscow tomorrow." To achieve that, his team will have to be able to stand up to a very strong defensive side and make better use of possession, above all, compared with the last two Bundesliga games against Hoffenheim and Dortmund: "We didn't do enough and above all in the final third – we had too few chances and too few shots on goal. We've analysed it and we’ll try to do better tomorrow." Regardless of the disappointing result against BVB, he was able to observe a lot of positives in his analysis. "The players know exactly what they need to do and they know their jobs. At the end of the day, it comes down to the quality we produce," said Bosz.
For the game against the team from the Russian capital, who finished bottom of the group in the previous Champions League campaign behind Porto, Schalke and Galatasaray, the 55-year-old can again call on the services of Kerem Demirbay who missed the match against Dortmund due to personal reasons. After a long injury lay-off, Joel Pohjanpalo returned to full training last week so the Dutchman should have his full squad available for the game against the Russian team. "I'll decide who's in the squad after the final training session."
Match information
Previous results: –
Weather forecast: 14 degrees, overcast
Referee: Pawel Raczkowski (Poland)
TV broadcaster DAZN
The Werkself's training camp in Weimarer Land all in one place: in our daily blog you'll find all the insights and updates from the day. The programme on day one (Sunday 2 August) includes a media round with managing director sport Simon Rolfes, free time for the team after the friendly against Rot-Weiss Essen and before an intensive week of training begins, as well as a coffee get-together where CEO Fernando Carro and Rolfes met around 100 fans in the afternoon.
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This fan meeting got off to a rather unexpected start. On Sunday afternoon, the Bayer 04 managing directors had just welcomed the fans present at the team hotel for the traditional get-together at the training camp when Fernando Carro’s phone rang. The CEO, glancing towards managing director sport Simon Rolfes with a smile, said: “We’ll just have to answer that quickly.” When asked by the fans what the call was actually about, the pair left it open with a wink. Instead, Carro and Rolfes then spent over an hour happily answering the fans’ many other questions.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have agreed Kerim Alajbegovic’s transfer to Italian record champions Juventus. The club brought the 18-year-old attacking player back to Leverkusen this summer via a buy-back option, following a season at Red Bull Salzburg. Until his move to Austria, the Bosnia international had been playing for Bayer 04’s Under-19s.
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A warm welcome to the Weimarer Land, Bayer 04! The Werkself moved into their accommodation for this year’s training camp on Saturday evening. In Blankenhain, Thuringia, head coach Carles Martínez’s team have a programme of gruelling training sessions – several of which will be open to fans – and team-building activities lined up for the next six days. We’ll be following the Werkself up close and providing you with exclusive insights, quotes, photos and videos from the training camp.
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With 22 days to go until the start of the Bundesliga campaign, the Bayer 04 Women’s team have gained a fresh boost of confidence. In a friendly against Belgian top-flight side KRC Genk on Saturday afternoon, coach Roberto Pätzold’s team secured a 1–0 win. Lobke Loonen (20’) scored the winner for the Black and Reds at the Kurtekotten training centre.
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