As of this season, the clubs no longer compete in divisions, instead playing against each other in five so-called showdowns. These consist of an online preliminary round, spread over two days, and then an offline knockout round in a rotating German city. The top 16 teams in each online round advance to the offline round. In the online round, each club plays six matches against assigned opponents. More information on the new format can be found HERE.
Leverkusen's opponents in this online round are SC Paderborn 07, DSC Arminia Bielefeld, 1. FSV Mainz 05, SV Werder Bremen, Borussia Dortmund and SG Dynamo Dresden. The new season started with the meetings against the first three teams yesterday, Thursday 16 October. Commentary on the games came from Niklas Schmitz aka 'NickMan' and co-commentator and influencer 'Snipsska'.
Leverkusen faced heavyweight opposition first in the form of Paderborn, semi-finalists last season and double winners in 2023/24. In the first of the two games, Sean 'SEAN_LDW07' Landwehr took on 16-year-old Dutchman Morris 'Morris' van de Pol. The Paderborn player won 4-2, meaning Marc 'MARC_LDW23' Landwehr had to make up two goals in match two. And he delivered, beating 21-year-old Israeli Yuval 'Yuval' Blizovsky - the 2024 runner-up at the FC Pro 24 World Championship - 4-1 after falling behind early. 'Power Item' Christian Kofane netted a hat-trick. So, it was a 6-5 win for Bayer 04 and three points to kick things off.
The second opponents were promoted outfit Arminia Bielefeld. The fixture started with the clash between Sean Landwehr and Laurin-Noah 'SNAKEZ' Bartsch. The Bielefeld man won 2-1 but Marc Landwehr produced the goods in the second game again, comfortably winning 5-2 against Hisham 'LIBOO7_' Badreddine to get another three points on the board for the #B04eSports team.
The first matchday concluded with another top-level opponent in Mainz, runners-up in the South-East Division last season, who'd already won two out of three matches at this point. Ditmir 'DITMIR_4897' Alimi, who reached the last 16 of the VBL Grand Final last season, beat Sean Landwehr 5-3 in the first game, leaving cousin Marc with a deficit to overturn again. This time, though, he couldn't turn it around. Despite some good play, he was beaten 3-2 by a strong counter-attacking display from Joe 'JH7' Hellmann.
The results at a glance:
Showdown 1 (online round) - Match 1
SC Paderborn 07 (L) vs. Bayer 04 (W)
'MORRIS' 4-2 'SEAN_LDW07'
'YUVAL' 1-4 'MARC_LDW23'
Overall: 5-6
Showdown 1 (online round) - Match 2
DSC Arminia Bielefeld (L) vs. Bayer 04 (W)
'SNAKEZ' 2-1 'SEAN_LDW07'
'LIBOO7_' 2-5 'MARC_LDW23'
Overall: 4-6
Showdown 1 (online round) - Match 3
1. FSV Mainz 05 (W) vs. Bayer 04 (L)
'DITMIR_4897' 5-3 'SEAN_LDW07'
'JH7' 3-2 'MARC_LDW23'
Overall: 8-5
With six points from three matches, the Leverkusen gamers sit in 13th place in the table. The full table can be found on the VBL website. It continues with the second half of this online round of this first showdown on Tuesday 21 October, against Werder Bremen from 18:00 CEST, then Borussia Dortmund (from 19:00 CEST) and Dynamo Dresen (from 20:00 CEST).
Bremen (17th place) and BVB (20th place) started the season with four points from three games, while Dresden are in fifth place with seven points. More information about the upcoming opponents can be found in our overview. As usual, the three matches on Tuesday will be streamed on the Bayer 04 app and on the club's own Twitch channel.
High spirits and previously untold stories: Around 100 Bayer 04 fans packed the Schwadbud fan pub in the east stand of the BayArena on Thursday evening to be there in person for the first instalment of the new series of events entitled “Rudi lädt ein” (Rudi invites you). They listened intently as long-serving Werkself players Gonzalo Castro and Stefan Kießling chatted with record appearance-maker Rüdiger Vollborn and presenter and stadium announcer Tobias Ufer about their many years together at the club, shared amusing anecdotes and revealed dressing room secrets. Anyone who missed the premiere can already look forward to the second instalment – on 12 May, Rudi will be testing the expert knowledge of Bayer 04 fans during a quiz night.
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The Bundesliga home game against VfL Wolfsburg in the first half of the season was one of those classic ‘days to forget’ for Bayer 04 Women. It started with goalkeeper Charlotte Voll being shown a red card in the first minute of the game, and following a further sending-off, coach Roberto Pätzold's 9-women side ended up losing 5-1 to last season's runners-up. At 18.30 CET on Sunday, they'll have the chance to exact revenge at the AOK Stadium - and pick up valuable points in the race for third place.
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Sofie Zdebel is up for the Goal of the Month award for February on ARD-Sportschau. Fans have until 21 March (19:00 CET) to vote for the Germany U23 international's volley to make it 2-0 in the Bayer 04 Women's derby against FC Köln (2-1).
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen are further expanding their partner network: The feed manufacturer PerNaturam is an official sponsor of the Bayer 04 Womens team. The partnership opens up a wide range of opportunities for the company to position its brand in the Bundesliga environment.
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Do you dream of wearing the Bayer cross on your chest? To play in black and red like your role models Loreen Bender, Cornelia Kramer, Kristin Kögel and co. from the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga? Then take your chance now! Our female youth teams are once again on the lookout for new talent. That's why Bayer 04 are organising a talent day on 12 April 2026 for the first time this year with trials for female juniors.
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