"The fact we're already qualified for the Round of 16 just provides further motivation," said the 49 year-old boss ahead of the last group match.
Both teams are unbeaten in the current Champions League campaign and already certain of their final position. "That means we can concentrate on playing good football," said Schmidt. He does not believe any of his players will fail to give 100 per cent due to the relative insignificance of the result of the match. Central defender Aleksandar Dragovic confirmed that at the pre-match press conference: "We're looking forward to the game even more as we have an account to settle with our opponents."
Clear mission
Monaco's Kamil Glick scored with the last shot of the match against the Werkself to secure a fortunate 1-1 draw when the two teams met in the Principality. "It was a speculative effort on a Tuesday night," recalled Dragovic as he explained his additional motivation: "We definitely want to pick up three points at home – also with one eye on the last three Bundesliga matches of the year."
Schmidt has had good and bad news on the injury front over the past few days. While Kevin Kampl, Admir Mehmedi and Kevin Volland are sidelined, Ömer Toprak and Jonathan Tah return as do Vladlen Yurchenko, Joel Pohjanpalo and Stefan Kießling. All are options for an appearance on Wednesday night. That also applies to the number two keeper Ramazan Özcan. "I'm thinking about making one or two changes – including in goal," said Schmidt.
Tickets still available
All the above named fit players took part in the final pre-match training session at the BayArena. Tickets are still available for anybody who want to see the final Werkself match in the Champions League ahead of Monday's Round of 16 draw. Ticket offices will be open on the night of the game.
Will the Bayer 04 U19s take the next step towards their first appearance in the knockout stage of the UEFA Youth League in the away game at Manchester City? Coach Kevin Brok is well aware of this historic opportunity, but he's not about to start worrying about the maths: "We're not concerned with the question of what might be good enough. We invest everything we can and always aim for the maximum. That's our way." The game on this penultimate Matchday 5 of the league phase takes place on Tuesday, 25 November (kick-off: 16:00 CET) at the Manchester City Academy Stadium. Werkself TV will be broadcasting the whole match exclusively for Bayer 04 club members live from 15:50 CET....
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 3-1 win at VfL Wolfsburg on the 11th matchday of the Bundesliga 2025/26...
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 0-1 loss against SGS Essen on the 11th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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An unfortunate end to a hard-fought game from Bayer 04's point of view: The Bayer 04 Women worked hard against bottom-of-the-table SGS Essen, but lacked penetration in attack for long periods of the game. The goal scored by Essen's Natasha Kowalski (58'), that saw the otherwise flawless goalkeeper Anne Moll unfortunately slip, was enough to inflict a third consecutive defeat on Roberto Pätzold's team.
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VfL Wolfsburg, without a win against Bayer 04 at home in the Volkswagen Arena for over ten years, will be looking to reverse the trend following the recent dismissal of their coach and sporting director. Werkself coach Kasper Hjulmand, who will be reunited with several Wolves players he knows from his time as the Denmark head coach, will do everything in his power to continue Leverkusen's unbeaten run in the Autostadt. The match against VfL Wolfsburg will also include Germany's bid to host the UEFA Women's EURO 2029. Today’s matchday news.
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