Tonight brings the next 'Spieltag – Die Show'. The live broadcast from the Schwadbud starts at 20.15 CET with Mara taking you through the evening. There promises to be lively discussion this time with legendary general manager Reiner Calmund as well as the former Werkself players Philip Wollscheid and Carsten Ramelow joining the broadcast that will be available by the Bayer 04 YouTube channel.
For FCS, the first fourth tier team in the history of the DFB Cup to reach the last four, the semi-final is the first competitive match in more than three months. "But it is for my players and me something like the match of our lives. There is an extremely limited probability that we will ever be able to experience something like this again," explained Saarbrücken's head coach Lukas Kwasniok ahead of the game. The FCS team and staff have been at their quarantine training camp at the Victor's Residenz Hotel Rodenhof since Wednesday.
Bayer04.de this week interviewed Marcus Mann, the sporting director at Saarbrücken. The 36-year-old talked about a "bonus match" for the club, his assessment of their chances and the time at the quarantine hotel. Click HERE for the interview.
With a few hours to go ahead of the clash at the Hermann Neuberger Stadium in Völklingen, we have looked back at the eight Werkself appearances in the last four of the domestic cup competition. That includes numerous exciting encounters that were settled in extra time or even with a penalty shootout. Curious? Click HERE for the article.
Midfielder Nadiem Amiri, looking at the knockout tie against the Regional League side, stresses that motivation is "high" ahead of the game. "From the first minute, we want to show with our performance that we definitely want to go through to the final," said the Germany international in an interview with dfb.de. The 23-year-old also explained: "we'll have to be patient. And an early goal for us would definitely help." The interview is available (in German) HERE.
We'll also take a brief look at last weekend – and that for a good reason! Youngster Florian Wirtz has entered the history books of the Bundesliga with his goal in the 4-2 defeat to FC Bayern: The Werkself winger now holds top spot with his first goal in the top flight as the youngest league goalscorer – at an age of just 17 years and 34 days. He takes over from the previous record holder Nuri Sahin who was 17 years and 82 days old.
In twelfth place is Julian Brandt who scored his first league goal with the Werkself at the age of 17 and 337 days. Ninth place is currently held by Kai Havertz (17 years, 295 days).
Striker Joel Pohjanpalo (under contract at Bayer 04 to 2022) only made one appearance for the Werkself this season due to a number of injuries in the first half of the campaign. The Finland international then went out on loan to second division Hamburg SV in the winter break to get match practice. The 25-year-old is currently helping the team from North Germany in their quest to gain promotion to the Bundesliga – and he is proving to be a crucial factor in this enterprise. "Danger" has scored seven times in ten league matches. Last night he scored twice in the 3-3 draw against Holstein Kiel. Carry on, Jolle!
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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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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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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