The Werkself qualified for the play-offs as the seventh-placed team in the North West division, Stuttgart after finishing fourth in the South East division – making them slight favourites ahead of the match. In addition, the VfB squad included two former German individual champions in Dylan ‘DULLENMIKE’ Neuhausen, who scored the most goals in individual games in the league phase across all the divisions, and Antonio ‘ANTONIORADELJA’ Radelja. Neuhaus won in 2002, Radelja in 2023.
In the 2 vs 2 opener on the night, Marc 'MARC_LDW23' Landwehr and Sean 'SEAN_LDW07' Landwehr were 2-0 down after eight minutes. The Leverkusen cousins did have more possession, created plenty of chances and were on top in all statistics. They pulled a goal back on 85 minutes but were unable to level. That meant the Black and Reds lost the opening game 2-1.
That put Sean Landwehr under pressure in the final individual game – but he was able to deal with it. The Bayer 04 eSports player was not unsettled after conceding an early goal to ‘DULLENMIKE’ and he hit back on four minutes but then conceded again to go 2-1 down two minutes later. The Leverkusen player took that as incentive to really up his game: He netted an impressive four goals between 18 and 33 minutes – from 2-1 down to 5-2 up! The score at the break was 6-4.
It was end-to-end action after the restart but Sean Landwehr had a suitable response to Stuttgart pulling a goal back. He was focused in the closing stages and gave little away with ‘DULLENMIKE’ only pulling a goal back at 8-7 on 88 minutes, which was too late from a VfB perspective. That meant the overall victory was to be decided in the third game.
The second 1 vs 1 game saw Marc Landwehr take on ‘ANTONIORADELJA’, a good colleague from his long eSports career. Both players were cautious at the start as they sought to avoid making mistakes. Marc Landwehr did open the scoring on 19 minutes but the Stuttgart player equalised three minutes later. Two more goals for Landwehr gave him a 3-1 lead at the break.
And there was end-to-end action after half-time in this game as well: VfB made it 3-2 (55'), Marc Landwehr scored at 4-2 on 69 minutes. After missing a great chance, the Leverkusen player was shown a red card due to a professional foul on 86 minutes and he conceded the penalty to make it 4-3. Nevertheless, Landwehr held on to the lead despite being a man down to seal the much celebrated progression to VBL Grand Final for the Leverkusen eSports players.
The finals in this year's German club championship again last two days. Matches will be played on Saturday, 22 March, and on Sunday, 23 March, at the Straßenkickerbase in Cologne. Three of the four group matches will be played on Saturday and the final group matches plus the knockout phase and final the day after.
Opponents for the #B04eSports players in Group B:
Anyone interested and eSports fans can watch the VBL Grand Final at the Straßenkickerbase free of charge. Doors open on Saturday at 11:00 CET and on Sunday at 10:00 CET. There is limited capacity. Alternatively, games can be watched live on the VBL Twitch channel. Broadcasting on Saturday begins at 11:30 CET and on Sunday at 10:30 CET.
Kicking off the new season with a fresh look: Bayer 04, in collaboration with sportswear manufacturer New Balance, has unveiled the official kit for Leverkusen’s e-Sports players for the coming season. The jersey is now available from the Bayer 04 online shop and the Fanwelt.
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Paulo Sergio and Bayer 04 have enjoyed close ties since the Werkself training camp in his native Brazil last summer. The club legend is in charge of the Bayer 04 Soccer Academy, which opened in the summer of 2025, and he has also been at this year’s training camp in the Weimarer Land. As well as interacting with the many fans who travelled to the camp, the 1994 World Cup winner used the time to plan the next steps for the Academy together with club officials. In an interview with bayer04.de, Sergio spoke about the project’s future development, the upcoming visit by young Academy players to Leverkusen, and plans for the coming months in Germany and Brazil.
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A round-up of the Werkself training camp in the Weimarer Land, all in one place: in our daily blog you’ll find all the insights and updates from the day. Day five (Thursday 6 August) is as follows: The squad have the final open session of the training camp in the morning. After lunch, there will be a team event.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen have signed Spanish left-back Miguel Gutiérrez from Napoli. The 25-year-old has signed a contract with the club to 30 June 2031. Gutiérrez came through the youth ranks at Real Madrid; he moved to Italy a year ago from Girona, and he played a key role for Napoli with 36 appearances. The big Italian club finished last season as runners-up in Serie A.
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