"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
A fresh look for the BayArena: The Bayer 04 stadium will have new seating in the form of folding seats for the 2026/27 campaign that will ensure significantly improved seating comfort and simplified movement within the rows of seats. As part of routine replacement after 17 years, fans of the Werkself were able to purchase the existing seats, used to witness the first German league title in the club's history. In addition, a large proportion of the seats will be donated to charitable projects, primarily in the local region. Bayer 04 fans can look forward to new, functional folding seats for the season opener at the beginning of August - still in the club colours of black and red, of course. A glimpse at the BayArena during the refurbishment.
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Werkself player Montrell Culbreath and Bayer 04 loanee Francis Onyeka are part of Germany's final squad for the U19 European Championships this summer. The tournament is in Wales from 24 June to 12 July.
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