One point is particularly important to Karim Bellarabi: "Some of our fans will be at the stadium tomorrow night. We want to give them a good and hopefully successful game," said the 31-year-old who joined Bayer 04 ten years ago and is a crowd favourite in the Werkself squad.
Head coach Gerardo Seoane added: "Our target was to go through. It wasn't a given that we would succeed in doing that before the last group match," said the Swiss coach. "Now we want to go into this sixth match in a serious manner and continue our great performances in this competition."
20 players boarded the aircraft on Wednesday morning. One of them was: Andrey Lunev. The Russian new signing will be between the sticks for the first time in a competitive match this season. "But it's not a gift to him, Andrey has earned this opportunity much more through his excellent performances in training," declared Seoane. The 30-year-old shot-stopper has fitted in with the team from day one and always supported the number one keeper Lukas Hradecky. Seoane added: "Andrey does everything to apply himself as best as possible. And his sporting qualities are obviously indisputable. He has a lot of experience and shows great reflexes on the line."
In addition to the injured (Baumgartlinger, Bakker), not yet available (Fosu-Mensah) and suspended (Demirbay) players, another trio remained in Leverkusen: Goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky, playmaker Florian Wirtz and centre forward Patrik Schick. "Lukas has played every game since the summer. Patrik is coming back from an injury and Florian has had slight problems recently. With him it's a case of controlling his workload," said Seoane.
Ferencváros, currently top of the Hungarian OTP Bank Liga, have won four out of the last five league matches. "We saw their strengths in the previous meeting," said Seoane. In the opening match in the Europa League group stage, the Hungarians took the lead at the BayArena after eight minutes with the game ending in a narrow 2-1 win for the Werkself. The 43-year-old added: "They have fast players up front but also a certain robust approach and strength in challenges in defence. We will again have to do a lot to come out on top."
The coach is certain the Black and Reds will do that to achieve the desired "serious and successful conclusion."
The team departs for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Monday for the Bayer 04 Brazil Tour 2025 from July 14-24. The preseason journey marks a change from recent training camps in the Austrian Alps and Black Forest and we caught up with CEO Fernando Carro to ask him about this summer's visit to Brazil.
Show moreMalik Tillman and the USA could not quite achieve the hoped-for big win in their own country. Last Monday’s final in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in Houston ended up in a 2-1 defeat for the hosts against Mexico. But the Bayer 04 new signing can be very happy with the course of the tournament and his own performances. Tillman was in the starting line-up for all six games. That concluded an impressive season for him after winning the Eredivisie title in the Netherlands with PSV Eindhoven. Bayer04.de profiles the 23-year-old new signing.
Show moreBayer 04 Leverkusen have signed the USA international Malik Tillman. The 23-year-old attacking midfielder joins the Werkself from Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven. Tillman, with German roots and born in Nuremberg, has a contract at Leverkusen to 30 June 2030. He scored 16 goals and provided five assists in 34 games for PSV last season. Three of those goals and two assists were in six matches in the UEFA Champions League.
Show moreThe second friendly and the first goal for the Bayer 04 Women: The Werkself just missed out on their first win in the preseason away to top-flight Dutch side PEC Zwolle. The team led by coach Roberto Pätzold drew 1-1 on Friday afternoon in Wezep. As with the friendly against TSG Hoffenheim (0-2) a number of first-team players were absent. The coach once again shared out time on the pitch for the 20-player squad. The goal of the match was scored by summer signing Vanessa Fudalla (67').
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