Qarabag have made the almost 3,000-kilometre journey from Baku to Leverkusen. Due to the challenges of the journey, the Azerbaijani champions flew to Germany on Tuesday and held their final training session at the BayArena on Wednesday.
Second-half goals from Florian Wirtz and Patrik Schick saw the Werkself come from 2-0 down in Baku last week. It was the first time this season that Leverkusen had trailed by two goals at half-time. Qarabag have managed to score at least two goals in each of their last five Europa League fixtures, but have also conceded in each of those. They are one of two teams alongside Sparta Prague to have both scored and let in at least 15 goals this European campaign, having netted 15 and shipped 16.
Bayer 04’s opponents were clearly full of confidence in the first leg and gained further momentum at the weekend as they extended their lead at the top of their league to 24 points with a 3-1 win at home to Zira. Coach Gurban Gurnabov changed his entire team for that game, also giving starts to Julio Romao and Elvin Jafarguliyev, who missed the first game through suspension. Both are available again in Leverkusen. There’s a doubt over the fitness of forward Juninho. The Brazilian was involved in both Qarabag goals in the reverse fixture but went off injured late on. He has travelled to Germany, though. Find out more about Qarabag in our opposition profile.
Engineering works mean that the S6 train is not running between Köln-Mülheim and Langenfeld in the nights between 13-15 March and 18-20 March. Today’s game is therefore affected, with rail-replacement buses running. Regional trains are not affected and will be running as usual.
UEFA have named Englishman Anthony Taylor as tonight’s referee. The 45-year-old has overseen two previous competitive fixtures involving the Werkself, producing one win and one loss. His assistants are compatriots Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn. Stuart Attwell is the VAR.
Bayer 04 host Borussia Mönchengladbach at the BayArena on matchday 12 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season. The schedule for the game remains to be confirmed. The latest information on ticket sales.
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Bayer 04 host Eintracht Frankfurt at the BayArena on matchday 14 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season. The schedule for the game remains to be confirmed. The latest information on ticket sales.
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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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