
"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.


Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 0-1 loss at Bayern Munich in the round of 16 of the women's DFB-Pokal 2026/27
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“As far as mentality and determination are concerned, we have nothing to reproach ourselves for,” Robert Andrich said up after the first home defeat for the Werkself this term. In terms of their play, too, the Black and Reds put in a respectable performance for long stretches of this intense and physical match, outperforming VfB Stuttgart in most areas. It was only in terms of efficiency in front of goal that the Swabians had the edge over the Werkself. Head coach Carles Martínez wants to learn from this so that, in future, they can “win this sort of match too”. The Werkself review.
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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 working 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 personal 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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Having previously recorded six consecutive home wins across all competitions, Bayer 04 suffered their first home defeat of 2026/27 as they went down 4-2 to VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Matchday 8. The visitors capitalised on their first two chances to score, with Ermedin Demirovic and Jamie Leweling finding the net in the first half. Although Patrik Schick got a goal back in the first half, Bilal El Khannouss and Demirovic again added further goals for Stuttgart. Bayer 04 didn’t give up, but Ibrahim Maza’s goal proved little more than a consolation.
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Fans at the BayArena got to enjoy a spectacle on Wednesday as the Werkself came from behind to beat Nürnberg 5-2 in the DFB Pokal. Now with the sixth home game of the season, can Bayer 04 maintain their perfect record in Leverkusen as VfB Stuttgart come to town in the Bundesliga on Saturday (15:30 CET)? The visitors have had issues domestically this term, sitting in 15th place, although they have had much better results in the UEFA Champions League. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the Matchday 8 encounter…
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