“I love this competition. The cup is great,” Hjulmand beamed at his pre-match press conference. “We’re ready and want to do all we can to reach the semi-finals,” he added. When asked about being favourites to progress, the Dane responded, “I haven’t thought about it. I’ve got too much respect for our opponent. They made things tough for us in the league meeting, but we need to play our game tomorrow and show our identity.”
Hjulmand also had a smile when he replied to questions about potentially winning the trophy. “My children always ask: What have you won? And we’ve got a big chance here. It’s just three more wins. That’s a big motivation for the team and the club,” the 53-year-old stated.
He later spoke positively about his players attitude, always looking at “what they can improve. We’re not fully pleased with a win and not devasted by a defeat. We always focus on the performance.”
“He won’t play tomorrow but should be back for Saturday, if things go well,” Hjulmand explained of Ibrahim Maza. Apart from him, Nathan Tella, Eliesse Ben Seghir and Mark Flekken, the whole squad is fit and ready.
In addition, the coach talked about options on the right. “Arthur played extremely well in Frankfurt. So too did Lucas Vázquez against Villarreal and Bremen. One has good pace, the other has experience and game intelligence.” Given the packed fixture list this month, he’s pleased to have such good options at his disposal. “We’ve got lots of games in a short space of time. We need every player.”
Bayer 04 have agreed a loan move for U19s striker Ken Izekor to join Bundesliga 2 club Eintracht Braunschweig on loan for the rest of the 2025/26 season.
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Bayer 04 have agreed a loan deal for Jeanuel Belocian to join fellow Bundesliga club Wolfsburg on loan until the end of the season. The 20-year-old defender’s contract in Leverkusen runs until 30 June 2029.
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After Leverkusen's eSports team spectacularly won the first showdown in the history of the VBL Club Championship last year, two rather sobering editions followed with two early exits. Now, in Showdown Four, cousins Marc and Sean Landwehr have once again made it into the offline knockout phase. And in this phase, Bochum awaits on Monday, 2 February (live on the VBL's Twitch channel from 16:00 CET). Here's a look at their opponents and what might happen next.
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SAB-P GmbH is to become Bayer 04 Leverkusen's first official inclusion partner. The company, which has previously been involved in the club's Business Club, is underlining its social commitment to inclusion with an agreement that runs until 31 May 2027. Among other things, it will be the shirt sponsor of the Inclusion Team from the 2026/27 season onwards.
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The Werkself were impressive in the 3-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt with clinical finishing and a first half "at a high level" that head coach Kasper Hjulmand draws a lot of positives from. The same should apply to Arthur, who scored for the first time in the Bundesliga. Edmond Tapsoba, for his part, was happy about his 250th appearance in a Bayer 04 jersey. "I think we're slowly finding our feet again," said goalscorer Malik Tillman, summing up the performance. The Werkself review.
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