Focused and yet relaxed; that was how Korkut looked on the day before his Champions League debut in the dugout. No sign of excitement. "I experienced a lot as a player and still have good memories of the stadium," he explained in fluent Spanish with the local journalist hanging on his every word – also as Korkut talked about the position after the 4-2 defeat for the Werkself in the first leg: "We are the underdogs but we want to use every minute to turn it round."
Personnel position at Bayer 04
The new head coach will be missing several regular players. In addition to Hakan Calhanoglu (CAS ban) and suspended Benjamin Henrichs, the injured Lars Bender (ankle), Ömer Toprak (knee), Jonathan Tah (groin) and Stefan Kießling (hip) are all ruled out. In addition, the youngster Kai Havertz has remained at home as he has important exams ahead of his A-levels at the Landrat Lucas Grammar School.
Korkut is still looking for a positive result in spite of all the absentees: "We are Bayer 04 and always have a strong team. I have full confidence in every individual player." The new Werkself head coach is well aware that it won't be easy to score goals against the Atlético defence and also that it needs at least three goals on Wednesday to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals. "But we want to do all we can to achieve that and that's how we'll approach the game. And then we'll see how the game turns out."
Korkut's second clash with Simeone
He faced his opposite number Diego Simeone at the Estadio Vicente Calderon as a player in 2004. At that time, Simeone was playing for the Rojiblancos and Korkut for Espanyol. In the 2-0 win for Atlético back then, a fresh-faced Fernando Torres (El Nino) scored both goals. It remains to be seen whether he will start for Simeone on Wednesday. In a league match against La Corunna (1-1) a week and a half ago he was knocked unconscious and swallowed his tongue. This week Torres returned to full training. Filipe Luis and stalwart Gabi are both sidelined after picking up a third yellow card in the first leg.
Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 0-1 loss at Werder Bremen on the 13th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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The penultimate Bundesliga matchday of the calendar year marks the end of an eventful first half of the season for the Bayer 04 Women. After seven wins, one draw and four defeats from the first twelve games of the season, coach Roberto Pätzold's team can go above Werder Bremen in the table with a win on Friday, 12 December (kick-off: 18:30 CET).
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The third showdown in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26 kicks off for the Leverkusen eSports team this Thursday, 11 December (live on the B04eSports Twitch channel from 19:00 CET). In the online preliminary round, the Black and Red will once again take on six previously drawn opponents for a place in the Top 16 and the associated entry into the offline knockout round, which will take place at this third showdown on 19 December in Cologne. Showdown One winners Bayer 04 will face FC St. Pauli, who won the second showdown last month, among others. The lowdown on first three opponents in this online preliminary round.
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The exact dates for the quarter-finals of the 2025/26 DFB Pokal have been finalised. Accordingly, Bayer 04's home tie against Bundesliga rivals FC St. Pauli will be played on Tuesday, 3 February 2026, with the kick-off at 20:45 CET. This was announced by the German Football Association (DFB) today (Thursday).
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