“We’ll definitely face a highly motivated challenger in Sonnenhof Großaspach, which we’ll take very seriously. We want to start the season with a win. Our aspiration is to once again go very far in this competition,” said Simon Rolfes, managing director sport.
A total of 64 clubs are competing in this year’s DFB Pokal. Leverkusen were in one pot with last season’s Bundesliga teams and the top 14 sides from Bundesliga 2. The other pot contained the last four second division teams, the top four from the 3. Liga and the 24 regional representatives.
Großaspach are the winners of the Württemberg Cup and have just earned promotion to the fourth tier Regionalliga. The game will be the first competitive fixture in charge of the Werkself for Erik ten Hag.
The second round is set to be played on 28/29 October; the round of 16 is on 2/3 December; the quarter-finals on 3/4 and 10/11 February 2026; the semi-finals on 21/22 April. The final in Berlin will be on 23 May.
First-round draw in full:
Dynamo Dresden vs. Mainz
Arminia Bielefeld vs. Werder Bremen
Schweinfurt vs. Fortuna Düsseldorf
Wehen Wiesbaden vs. Bayern Munich
Sonnenhof Großaspach vs. Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Saarbrücken vs. Magdeburg
Lokomotive Leipzig vs. Schalke
Bahlinger SC vs. Heidenheim
Hansa Rostock vs. Hoffenheim
Blau-Weiß Lohne vs. Greuther Fürth
Sandhausen vs. RB Leipzig
Energie Cottbus vs. Hannover
Homburg vs. Holstein Kiel
Jahn Regensburg vs. Köln
Preußen Münster vs. Hertha Berlin
Gütersloh vs. Union Berlin
Sportfreunde Lotte vs. Freiburg
BFC Dynamo vs. Bochum
Eintracht Norderstedt vs. St. Pauli
Lübeck vs. Darmstadt
Engers vs. Eintracht Frankfurt
Illertissen vs. Nürnberg
Meuselwitz vs. Karlsruhe
Eintracht Braunschweig vs. VfB Stuttgart
Rot-Weiß Essen vs. Borussia Dortmund
RSV Eintracht vs. Kaiserslautern
Viktoria Köln vs. Paderborn
Atlas Delmenhorst vs. Borussia Mönchengladbach
Hallescher FC vs. Augsburg
Pirmasens vs. Hamburg
Hemelingen vs. Wolfsburg
Ulm vs. Elversberg
The next friendly for Bayer 04: A week after the 2-0 win in Bochum, the Werkself are away to top-flight Dutch side Fortuna Sittard today, Friday 1 August (kick-off: 19:00 CEST). The latest information on the match at the Fortuna Sittard Stadion close to the German border is here in today's match news.
Show more
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…
Show more
The Werkself entertain Italian club Pisa FC, newly promoted to Serie A, at the official season opener at the BayArena on Tuesday, 5 August (kick-off: 18:00 CEST). Bayer 04 fans can look forward to a varied programme of events and exciting promotions. Tickets for the season opener are on open sale with over 18,000 tickets sold so far. Read on for the latest information.
Show more
An experienced addition to the Bayer 04 U19 coaching staff: Former Werkself player Hüzeyfe Doğan starts as assistant coach to Sergi Runge on 1 August.
Show more
