From this season, 36 instead of 32 clubs will start the Champions League. The previous group phase is replaced by a league phase made up of all 36 participating clubs. Each team plays eight different opponents in the league phase. Only one home or one away game will be played against each opponent. The opponents will be determined as part of the draw of the league phase on Thursday night.
The results of the eight matchdays in the league phase will produce an overall table. The top eight teams from that table go straight through to the Round of 16. The other eight places for the Round of 16 will be determined by a play-off round with home and away legs. That will involve the teams from places 9 to 16 against the teams from places 17 to 24. Teams in places 25 to 26 in the overall table will go out of the Champions League and European competition as there will no longer be the transfer to the Europa League as in previous seasons.
The eight clubs who progress from the play-off round will complete the Round of 16 line-up. The draw will decide who the top eight teams in the final table play. The Round of 16 ties will be played in home and away legs with the best eight teams at home in the second leg. The Champions League will return to the current format from the Round of 16.
The draw for the league phase sees the 36 participating clubs allocated to four pots according to UEFA club coefficients. Bayer 04 are in pot two. The Werkself, like every other club, will play two teams from all four pots.
Each club will be drawn manually once with computer software determining the eight opponents and whether the matches are at home or away. Matches between two clubs from the same country are not possible in the league phase.
The dates for the league phase fixtures will not be released on the same day as the draw but instead will be announced by UEFA on Saturday, 31 August.
Pot 1:
Real Madrid
Manchester City
Bayern Munich (not possible)
Paris Saint-Germain
Liverpool
Inter Milan
Borussia Dortmund (not possible)
RB Leipzig (not possible)
Barcelona
Pot 3:
Feyenoord
Sporting CP
PSV Eindhoven
Dinamo Zagreb
FC Salzburg
Lille OSC
Red Star Belgrade
Young Boys
Celtic
Pot 2:
Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Atletico Madrid
Atalanta
Juventus
Benfica
Arsenal
FC Brugge
Shakhtar Donetsk
AC Milan
Pot 4:
Slovan Bratislava
AS Monaco
Sparta Prague
Aston Villa
Bologna
Girona
VfB Stuttgart (not possible)
SK Sturm Graz
Stade Brestois
Bayer 04 automatically go into the UEFA Youth League due to the qualification of the first team for the Champions League. The six matchdays in the European U19 competition will be played on the same matchdays as the Champions League games. The only difference is the Youth League will not be played on matchdays seven and eight of the Champions League in the New Year. The youth competition will only be played on the first six matchdays. Following the league phase, this Champions League route and the so-called champions route, involving all European league champions, will be brought together for the knockout phase. From there, the opponents in the Youth League will be drawn and no longer linked to the Champions League draw as in the league phase.
Bayer 04 lost 3-0 away at Bayern Munich on Matchday 9 in the Bundesliga on Saturday. Serge Gnabry and Nicolas Jackson netted for the unbeaten league leaders in the first half, with Loïc Badé’s own goal before the break rounding out the scoring.
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The Werkself are away at Bayern Munich, who have won all 14 of their competitive fixtures in 2025/26, for Saturday evening’s Bundesliga match (kick-off: 18:30 CET). However, Bayer 04 are also in good form themselves, earning 16 of a possible 18 points in their six league games under Kasper Hjulmand. The 2023/24 double winners are also unbeaten in their last five Bundesliga meetings with the reigning champions. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game at the Allianz Arena.
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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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After the disappointing 5-1 defeat against VfL Wolfsburg, the Bayer 04 Women had two weeks to regroup. On Sunday, 2 November (13:00 CET, ad-hoc arena at Erst-Abbe-Sportfeld), coach Roberto Pätzold's team will be aiming for their fifth win of the season on matchday 8 in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga.
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