Today's DFB Cup tie is the first meeting of the Regional League side from Hamburg – Ottensen and the Werkself. That makes T05 opponent number 213 for Bayer 04 in professional football.
Teutonia qualified for the DFB Cup for the second time in succession this year – and indeed for the second time ever. Last season they went out to the eventual DFB Cup winners RB Leipzig in an 8-0 defeat.
The T05 team, managed by the Austrian coach Dominik Glawogger and his assistant and former St Pauli player André Trulsen, can expect to face attacking and goal hungry opponents this afternoon. Bayer 04 have scored in every one of their past 26 cup ties with no other club currently having such a long run of scoring in this competition. The Werkself have also scored in the last 31 away cup ties – that is a current record in the DFB Cup.
The new third kit will be used for the first time at St Pauli’s Millerntor stadium. The shirt represents the three regional rivers of the Wupper, Dhünn and Rhine that meet in Leverkusen in the form of white lines on a cyan blue background. The new third kit is available online at at Bayer 04 fan shops. You can order the shirt HERE.
There will be a Man of the Match award at every DFB Cup tie this season. The selection will be made by a jury composed up of representatives of the sporting management of the Germany national teams. That includes male and female coaches with the DFB (U15s up to senior national teams). The trophy will be presented after the final whistle as part of an interview by the TV rights holder Sky.
Bayer 04 head coach Xabi Alonso will make his debut on the touchline as a coach in the DFB Cup tie against Ottensen. His experience in the cup is different as a player at Bayer Munich: He won the DFB Cup with the record champions in the 2015/16 season. He made a total of eleven appearances in this competition.
The German Football Association (DFB) has appointed Tom Bauer as the match referee. The 26-year-old will be assisted by Rafael Foltyn and Felix Prigan and the fourth official is Alexander Roppelt. VAR is not used in the first round of the DFB Cup.
While the Werkself only start in the Bundesliga next weekend, Teutonia 05 have already played two matches in the Regional League North – with great success: The team from the Hanseatic city won both games scoring eight goals and keeping two clean sheets. That puts T05 top of the table. Further information on today's opponents are available in the lowdown on our next opponents.
As usual, Werkself Radio is available for anybody unable to be at today's game. The audio broadcast begins 30 minutes before kick-off with commentary provided by Cedric Pick and Niko Hartmann. In addition, the live text update service will keep you up-to-date to ensure you don't miss any of the key match action. Both Werkself Radio and the live text update service are available at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app – just log on.
In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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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 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…
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