The Bild Zeitung again uses a play on words with the Werkself coach in its headline: "Gladbach sink HERRLICH (brilliantly)“ and the article continues: "What was that? Gladbach are knocked out of the DFB Cup, humiliated and punished at home. In the fifth game against Gladbach since October 2017, Leverkusen win 5-0 to go through to the Round of 16. ...Leverkusen decision maker Rudi Völler (58): 'We've scored eleven goals in three days against two teams who have had impressive starts to the season. A lot is going right at the moment that wasn't before.' Bayer's BALLERabi has scored six goals in the last four games. He, along with coach Herrlich, are probably THE comeback kings of the season."
The Hannoversche Allgemeine saw "the next Bayer show" at Borussia Park. Their report reads: "Bayer Leverkusen have impressively continued their upturn and again reached the DFB Cup Round of 16 as they did last season. After the splendid 6-2 win at Werder Bremen, the Werkself also won the second game in succession and overcame Borussia Mönchengladbach with a 5-0 victory thanks to perfect counter-attacking football."
The Kölner Stadt Anzeiger provided a state of the nation report on Bayer 04 after the 90 minutes at Mönchengladbach: "Euphoria replaces crisis." The small contingent of Bayer 04 Leverkusen fans chanted: 'Let's have another, let's have another.' And the Werkself duly obliged for the fans, several times. With a 5-0 winning margin and another exiting display of counter-attacking football, Bayer 04 crushed Borussia Mönchengladbach in the second round of the DFB Cup to progress to the Round of 16. Leverkusen played like the season only started with the 6-2 win at Bremen: Pumped full of confidence and playing faultless football. A complete makeover. And now with eleven goals in three days. There is no longer any trace of the weeks of crisis."
The Cologne-based Express reports: "Oh dear, Borussia! Gladbach's high flying form and Cup dreams are over with a bump as the Foals trip up in the second round of the Cup against Rhineland rivals Leverkusen with a 5-0 defeat and exit from the competition. The fortress has been breached and almost 49,000 fans witnessed the first hammering at home for VfL this term. What humiliation! Again it is Bayer who hurt the team from the Lower Rhine in the Cup. The Werkself knocked Borussia out last December and now it's happened again. Another turnround for coach Heiko Herrlich who had to worry about losing his job a week ago. The Bremen gala performance (6-2) and now the derby win complete with progress to the Round of 16. Leverkusen are back."
The Rheinische Post identified a negative from a Gladbach perspective: "There was an embarrasing 5-0 home defeat against Leverkusen and Gladbach have never lost by a bigger margin at home in the Cup. With Bayer there is still the hope of satsifying the yearning. Bayer won the Cup in 1993, and no other title since then... The season might only really have started for Bayer in November."
Further headlines: "Leverkusen sweep past Gladbach“ (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung); "Leverkusen make Mönchengladbach suffer“ (Westdeutsche Zeitung); "Bayer let fly" (Ruhr Nachrichten). At spox.com the report reads: "Sweet instead of sour: Heiko Herrlich can breathe a sigh of relief after a brilliant Cup triumph on Halloween. The clinical Werkself are in the DFB Cup Round of 16 for the seventh time in eight years."
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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