A first in the Champions League: Together with Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig plus Europa League winners Eintracht Frankfurt there are five German clubs in the Champions League for the first time. Bayer 04 are in Pot 3.
In addition, for the first time in 25 years UEFA are again allowing the sale of standing tickets for the matches in their international club competitions of the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League as part of a pilot project in Germany, England and France.
As usual, 32 clubs will start the Champions League campaign in 2022/23 with eight groups of four teams. The make up of the groups is determined by all the teams being placed in four draw pots. Pot 1 has holders Real Madrid, the winners of the UEFA Europa league Eintracht Frankfurt and the champions from the sixth highest rated leagues who have not qualified by winning one of the titles in 2021/22. This year that is Manchester City, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Porto and Ajax.
Pots 2 to 4 are determined by the club coefficient rankings. Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Sevilla and RB Leipzig are in Pot 2. Alongside Bayer 04 in Pot 3 are Borussia Dortmund, Inter Milan, Napoli, FC Salzburg, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sporting CP and Benfica. The clubs in Pot 4 are Club Brugge, Celtic, Marseille, Dinamo Zagreb, Rangers, FC Copenhagen,Viktoria Plzeň and Maccabi Haifa.
The draw for the group stage of the Champions League campaign of 2022/23 is being held today, Thursday 25 August, in Istanbul from 18.00 CEST. There will be live and free coverage to see which clubs the Werkself will face on TV at Sky Sports News as well as on the broadcaster's website.
The composition of the groups of four is drawn with one club from each pot. The Seoane team can look forward to playing one of the big teams in Europe through being placed in Pot 3. It is worth remembering that no team in the group stage can play another club from the same country. That means the Werkself will not play any of the other clubs from Germany's top flight in the group stage.
Champions League timetable:
It was another incredibly close call in the end: The second showdown in the 2026/27 VBL Club Championship saw the #B04eSports team once again narrowly miss out on a place in the top 16 of the preliminary round – and with it, a spot in the in-person knockout stage. It was a bitter blow: Marc and Sean Landwehr again fell just short, despite being level on points with their rivals. As was the case last month, their weaker record across the twelve individual matches in the six preliminary round fixtures proved decisive.
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“They stuck with us over the past few weeks when things weren’t going so well,” said captain Edmond Tapsoba, thanking the fans for their support after the 2–1 win in Cologne and dedicating the derby victory to them. Throughout the 90 minutes, the Werkself had looked unfazed and in command, inflicting the first home defeat of the season on FC Köln. It was the sixth consecutive win against the Cologne team for Bayer 04 – head coach Carles Martínez, on the other hand, was facing the team from the neighbouring city for the first time and “now really knows what this derby win means”. The Werkself derby review.
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Following the 2–1 derby victory away at FC Köln on Bundesliga matchday 9, Edmond Tapsoba, Malik Tillman and Aleix Garcia spoke to Werkself TV...
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-1 derby win at 1. FC Köln Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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There were celebrations among those in black and red at the RheinEnergieSTADION. On Matchday 9 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season, the Werkself beat 1. FC Köln 2-0 and registered their sixth successive win in the derby. Aleix Garcia put Bayer 04 in front after just seven minutes with a direct free kick. Leverkusen played with discipline and energy after that and didn't allow some fierce challenges to unsettle them. Patrik Schick made it 2-0 in the 86th minute, and Said El Mala's goal in stoppage time for Köln proved nothing more than consolation. Jonas Hofmann crowned the derby win with his 100th appearance for the club.
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