Just nine days separate the 2-1 defeat in Frankfurt in the first Bundesliga fixture in the New Year and the DFB Cup clash with Eintracht Frankfurt, which was moved from the end of December to 12 January at the request of Bayer 04. “The short period of time between the two is obviously unusual,” said Peter Bosz at the pre-match press conference on Monday and then he moved onto his analysis of the opponents. The 56-year-old added: “We’re up against a very good opponent. Of course, I don’t know what Adi Hütter (Eintracht Frankfurt, ed.) is intending to do but I can imagine they will try to play the same way they did two weeks ago – they did very well. But even more important is the way we play.”
In terms of their own game, Bosz sees a need for improvement for his team “in using the pitch” compared with the Bundesliga defeat at Eintracht. “That’s why we found it so difficult to play good football. We want to do better now,” said the head coach.
Bosz has the same players available for the second round tie as in the 1-1 draw against Werder Bremen on Saturday. “Florian Wirtz will be rested again tomorrow,” declared the Dutchman. The experienced Lars Bender, who made a 30-minute appearance against Werder Bremen following his recent injury, is again available. So there are no changes to the squad compared with the Bremen game.
For Bayer 04, the cup competition is “very important. The route is short. We saw what it’s like to be in the final last year. And when you play in a final then you also want and have to win it. And that’s what we want to do this time,” said Bosz.
A win against Eintracht Frankfurt would see the Werkself play at Regional League Rot-Weiss Essen in the Round of 16 in the DFB Cup. “To be honest: I only found out who our next opponents will be if we beat Frankfurt two days ago,” Bosz said. “But there’s no sense thinking about the next opponent if you don’t go through. So our full focus is on Eintracht Frankfurt first.”
Match info:
Broadcaster: Sky and Werks11 Radio
Referee: The match officials will be announced on the day of the game
Plenty going on both on and off the pitch: The Bayer 04 fan support team has organised a number of highlights for fans visiting the Werkself 2026/27 summer training camp in Blankenhain, in the Weimarer Land region. Registration for the events is now open. All the details at a glance.
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The Bayer 04 Leverkusen Women’s team and s2-Software are continuing their long-term partnership: The Werkself and the provider of pre-owned Microsoft licences have extended their contract by two years to 2028. This means s2-Software will remain the Bayer 04 sleeve sponsor for all matches in the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga.
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BIOGENA is the new performance partner for the Bayer 04 Leverkusen Women’s team. Under a partnership initially set to run for three years, the club and the leading Austrian micronutrient company are pooling their expertise in the areas of health, fitness and top-level performance.
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100 children from the Bayer 04 Football Academy had the chance to gain exclusive insights: As part of the summer camp, the young footballers headed inside the BayArena at midday on Tuesday, 21 July, where they were due to meet Werkself keepers Janis Blaswich and Simeon Rapsch in the press conference room. The two players took plenty of time to answer every question from the inquisitive audience – whether it was about their own careers or their first impressions of the new head coach. Finally, there was even time left to sign autographs for the young fans.
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Following the cancellation of Bayer 04’s scheduled friendly against Carl Zeiss Jena on 1 August, the Werkself have now found a new opponent for the same day and will host Rot-Weiss Essen of the 3. Liga at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion. Kick-off is at 11:00 CEST and tickets are available now.
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