The Black and Reds arrived in Saarland on Friday afternoon. Lukas Hradecky and Co. stayed in the state capital Saarbrücken overnight with today's agenda including a walk, a brief meeting and lunch. After that, the Werkself will make the 90 minute journey to Elversberg on the team bus.
Jonathan Tah and Co. will make their first appearance in the red home kit from the new supplier Castore at the URSAPHARM Arena. The hosts Elversberg will play in all white.
The German Football Association (DFB) has appointed Martin Petersen as the referee for the DFB Cup tie in Elversberg. The 37-year-old has previously refereed five games involving the Werkself – with the Black and Reds clocking up three convincing wins with a total of eleven goals in those encounters. One match was lost and the other ended all square.
Petersen’s assistants are Robert Wessel and Christian Ballweg, the fourth official is Benedikt Kempes. Have a good game.
While the Werkself start the league campaign next weekend, today's hosts have already played one game in the third division – and they hit the ground running. In a clash between newly promoted clubs, the team under head coach Horst Steffen registered an impressive 5-1 win away at Rot-Weiss Essen. Further information on the team from Saarland can be found in our profile of the next opponents.
SV 07 Elversberg and Bayer 04 meet for the first time in a competitive match. The Saarlanders are opponents number 211 for the Werkself – only Bayern Munich played more teams in German professional football (233 including DFB Cup first round ties). SVE have won once in eight matches against Bundesliga clubs: They beat Hannover 96 on penalties in the first round in 2010/11.
Bayer 04 are one of five clubs to have progressed from round one in all of the last ten seasons (as have Borussia Dortmund, SC Freiburg, by Munich and FC Köln). The last time the Werkself were knocked out in the first round was back in 2011/12 with a 4-3 defeat after extra time at Dynamo Dresden. Bayer 04 have proved to be prolific in the DFB Cup: The Black and Reds have scored at least one goal (69 goals) in the last 25 games in the domestic cup competition with no other team on target as often in the competition.
The German Football League (DFL) have put the DFB Cup first round ties under the motto of sustainability and climate protection to draw more attention to these issues in German professional football. A number of environmental protection measures are planned, for example a minute of action: That means all the cup games will kick off one minutes late to allow appeals and information on climate protection and sustainability.
In addition to a number of measures by the home club, Bayer 04 will also draw attention to these issues as the visitors in the cup tie at SV 07 Elversberg. Werkself skipper Lukas Hradecky will wear an alternative captain's armband made of sustainable material covered with logos and slogans on the issue of climate protection. In addition, Bayer 04 will take part in a fundraising campaign with €100 donated for every goal they score. The funds will be handed over to the DFB and the not-for-profit organisation ‘Sports for Future’ that supports climate protection projects. The DFB will double the funds raised by the clubs at the end of the matchday.
Happy birthday, Kevin. The former Werkself player Kevin Volland is 30 today. The striker joined Leverkusen from TSG Hoffenheim in 2016 and he went on to make his debut in the Champions League and the Europa League for the Black and Reds. The Allgäu-born forward was at Leverkusen for four years before moving on to the top French club AS Monaco. In his time at Bayer 04, Volland made 148 appearances and he also captained the Werkself in several games.
The fourth showdown in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26 starts for the Leverkusen eSports team today, Thursday 22 January (live on the B04eSports Twitch channel and on the Bayer 04 app from 19:00 CET). In the online preliminary round, the Black and Reds will once again compete with six previously drawn opponents for a place in the Top 16 and the associated entry into the offline knockout round in Berlin on 2 February at the fourth showdown. The lowdown on our next three opponents in the online preliminary round.
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The fourth European away trip of the season in the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 takes the Werkself to the Greek capital. Head coach Kasper Hjulmand's team are away to Greek double winners Olympiacos on matchday seven in the UCL league phase. The match at the Karaiskakis Stadium is on Tuesday, 20 January (kick-off: 21:00 CET). We'll be taking you on a trip to Athens and reporting on the Werkself close-up...
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A great honour for Bayer 04 Women's German international: as part of the 2025 Sports Awards, Carlotta Wamser entered her name into the City of Leverkusen's Golden Book. On Tuesday, she looked back on a special year in a talk in the Morsbroich Castle hall of mirrors.
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It was a disappointing night in Athens: The Werkself lost 2-0 away to Olympiacos on Matchday 7 in the league phase of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League campaign. In a match that was intense and fiery from the outset, the high-pressing home side made the better start and took the lead through Costinha on two minutes. Although the Werkself had a number of chances to equalise, the clinical Greek side increased the lead to 2-0 shortly before half-time (45+1’). In the second half, Leverkusen once again gave their all and showed total commitment but, despite their best efforts, the Black and Reds were unable to break down the Olympiacos defence on the night.
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