
After the great success in Showdown One in Leipzig, which ended with a spectacular triumph against hosts RB Leipzig, and the disappointing second event, where the Black and Red players had to call it a day in the online preliminary round, the Leverkusen team now want to get to the top again. The current position is as follows: Bayer 04 are fifth in the overall table, where the points from all online preliminary rounds (3 per win) and offline rounds (2 per win) of the five showdowns are added up and which will ultimately decide who makes it to the final round of the German Club Championship next year. Places 1 to 8 will go straight through to the final event, while the teams in places 9 to 24 will play off in a play-off round to decide the remaining eight teams.
The third showdown kicks off with a heavyweight. FC St. Pauli succeeded Bayer 04 to secure the title of the second showdown in November, beating SV Darmstadt 98 (third in the preliminary round), SC Freiburg (second in the preliminary round) and, in the final, unbeaten Borussia Dortmund (first in the preliminary round and top of the overall table). St. Pauli "only" finished the preliminary round in sixth place, but are second in the overall table thanks to the points from the offline round. Leverkusen have met St. Pauli once before this season. In showdown one, Bayer 04 beat FCSP in the quarter-finals on their way to the final.
St Pauli's Berkay ‘BerkayLion’ Demirci has scored the second most goals of all eSports players with 84. On average, he scores 4.7 goals per individual match (fifth place). His team-mate Ben ‘FCSP_Blaxe’ Ludwig is in seventh place (4.6). Demirci also ranks fifth among the players with the most points in his individual games (2.3), while Ludwig is in eighth place (2.1).
Eintracht Frankfurt are 28th out of 35 in the overall table with 13 points and have missed out on the offline round in both showdowns so far. One of the main problems is scoring goals. Frankfurt have only scored 66 goals - the fourth lowest number of all VBL-CC clubs. Eintracht eSports player Romeo ‘Romeo_439’ Rissling has been smart with his chances and only needs 1.2 shots per goal - putting him second among all 90 eSports players. However, he is rarely able to convert this strength into victories, scoring an average of 1.3 points per individual game (56th place). Teammate Julien ‘SGE_Julien’ Kurum secures slightly more with 1.6 points (28th place), while Leon ‘Jelm’ Hahn averages just 0.6 points (83rd place).
FC Schalke have 23 points and are eighth in the overall table. In showdown one, they finished sixth in the preliminary round and went through to the offline round in Leipzig, where the Royal Blues lost to Bayer 04 in the Round of 16. In the second showdown, they finished tenth after the preliminary round, but were again eliminated in the Round of 16 in the offline round (against Bayern Munich). With Ali Oskoui ‘PredatorFIFA’ Rad, the Royal Blues have the most clinical eSports player of the season so far in their ranks. He also averages 1.6 points in his individual games, as does team-mate Bastian ‘Bubschi10’ Rupsch. Okan ‘Okannn59’ Dalgic stands at 1.5 points per individual game and is in 14th place out of 90 players with the most goals per individual game (4.3).
Thursday, 11 December
Game 1, 19:05 CET:
FC St. Pauli vs Bayer 04
Game 2, 20:15 CET:
Bayer 04 vs Eintracht Frankfurt
Game 3, 21:15 CET:
Bayer 04 vs FC Schalke 04
Anyone wanting to watch the games involving the Leverkusen eSports players: All the games will be broadcast live on the #B04eSports team Twitch channel.
The Black and Reds will play the three remaining online preliminary round matches next Tuesday, 16 December, starting at 18:00 CET. The opponents are SV 07 Elversberg, 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 and Fortuna Düsseldorf. Lowdown on these opponents to follow.

Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 0-1 loss at Bayern Munich in the round of 16 of the women's DFB-Pokal 2026/27
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“As far as mentality and determination are concerned, we have nothing to reproach ourselves for,” Robert Andrich said up after the first home defeat for the Werkself this term. In terms of their play, too, the Black and Reds put in a respectable performance for long stretches of this intense and physical match, outperforming VfB Stuttgart in most areas. It was only in terms of efficiency in front of goal that the Swabians had the edge over the Werkself. Head coach Carles Martínez wants to learn from this so that, in future, they can “win this sort of match too”. The Werkself review.
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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 working 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 personal 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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Having previously recorded six consecutive home wins across all competitions, Bayer 04 suffered their first home defeat of 2026/27 as they went down 4-2 to VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Matchday 8. The visitors capitalised on their first two chances to score, with Ermedin Demirovic and Jamie Leweling finding the net in the first half. Although Patrik Schick got a goal back in the first half, Bilal El Khannouss and Demirovic again added further goals for Stuttgart. Bayer 04 didn’t give up, but Ibrahim Maza’s goal proved little more than a consolation.
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Fans at the BayArena got to enjoy a spectacle on Wednesday as the Werkself came from behind to beat Nürnberg 5-2 in the DFB Pokal. Now with the sixth home game of the season, can Bayer 04 maintain their perfect record in Leverkusen as VfB Stuttgart come to town in the Bundesliga on Saturday (15:30 CET)? The visitors have had issues domestically this term, sitting in 15th place, although they have had much better results in the UEFA Champions League. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the Matchday 8 encounter…
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