The small town on the west coast of Norway provides a first as Bayer 04 and Molde face each other for the first time this evening. The Werkself have done well against Norwegian teams to date: All the four previous European games against teams from the Scandinavian country ended in wins with the opponents being Rosenberg in the group stages of the UEFA Europa League (twice in 2010/11 and twice in 2012/13).
Molde also have a good record against German clubs: They have not lost any of the last five games against teams from Germany (three wins, two draws).
Early in the new season, which started last April in Norway, the mission of defending the title appeared a distant hope for champions Molde. The first ten matches brought five defeats. The team from West Norway have got back on track since then and not lost in the league after the middle of June and last Sunday they secured a boost in confidence with a 4-0 home victory over Viking Stavanger, the current leaders in the Eliteserien.
Molde suffered a 1-0 defeat away to the Azerbaijani champions Qarabag in their first group match in the Europa League two weeks ago. Further information on Molde can be found in our lowdown on the next opponents.
The Werkself will play in their away kit for the match against the Norwegians – for the first time in a game since the start of the season. If you want to buy the shirt – click HERE for the online shop.
UEFA has appointed Greek match official Anastasios Papapetrou as the referee for the game against Molde. This will be the first time the 38-year-old has officiated a Werkself match. Papapetrou will be assisted by his fellow countrymen Tryfon Petropoulos and Iordanis Aptosoglou on the touchlines and Evangelos Manouchos is the VAR.
As usual, Werkself Radio is available for anybody unable to be at today's game. The audio broadcast begins 30 minutes before kick-off with commentary provided by Niko Hartmann and Cedric Pick. In addition, the live text update service will keep you up-to-date to ensure you don't miss any of the key match action. Both Werkself Radio and the live text update service are available at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app.
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