Jeremie Frimpong was the Bayer 04 player who took part in the press conference, with Carl Starfelt as the Celtic player representative. The Swedish defender said: “Leverkusen have an amazing team. They’ve had a great start to the season and have a lot of very good players in their ranks. It’ll be a tough test for us, but we know we’re very strong at Celtic Park. So, we’ll go out there tomorrow evening and enjoy this great challenge.”
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou added: “Every match is a challenge. And when you want to progress, home games are key – regardless of other results. We’ve got a great evening ahead of us.”
UEFA have appointed Italian Marco di Bello to referee this fixture. The 40-year-old made his debut in Serie A back in 2012. He’s never overseen a Leverkusen game before but has previously come across midfielder Nadiem Amiri. The Werkself man started the Germany U21’s 2-1 win over England in March 2019 with Di Bello at the whistle.
Hradecky & Co. will have some support among the fervent Celtic Park faithful. Around 200 Bayer 04 fans have made the trip to Glasgow. Great to have them along!
The opponent may be different but the hotel is the same. The Werkself are again staying near Glasgow’s main station, which was also their base when they earned a 3-1 win at Rangers in March last year.
There was a nice story for the travelling Werkself in the local papers. The Scottish Sun had spoken with Michael Henke – Ottmar Hitzfeld’s assistant when Bayern Munich won the Champions League in 2001 – about Leverkusen’s current form. “They’ve showed very good performances so far. Everything points to them winning. Their performances are a little surprising because they brought in a coach not really known in Germany and have a young team.”
The 64-year-old also spoke about Florian Wirtz: “He’s only 18 but has already scored five goals and got five assists. He plays so nonchalant, like he was a mature player and had many years of experience as a professional footballer.”
It’s been very much Patrik Schick’s year after his five goals for the Czech Republic at the Euros. The 25-year-old has now also started the season in fine scoring form with the Werkself, netting four times in six games in the Bundesliga. No surprise, then, that former Germany international Stefan Effenberg has named the Bayer 04 man in his top 10 strikers in Europe right now. Top of the pile was Robert Lewandowski, with Schick in eighth.
Barely two weeks since beating St. Pauli in the DFB Pokal quarter-finals, Bayer 04 again welcome the Hamburg club to the BayArena for Matchday 22 in the Bundesliga this Saturday (kick-off: 15:30 CET). The visitors received a welcome confidence boost last weekend with a win over VfB Stuttgart, but the head-to-head record is still very much in Leverkusen’s favour, which Kasper Hjulmand’s team will look to maintain. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 2-1 win against FC Köln on the 18th matchday of the Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga 2025/26.
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In preparation for the Bundesliga home match against FC St. Pauli on Saturday, 14 February (kick-off: 15:30 CET), the Werkself had a full week of training for the first time since the first match in 2026. At the press conference ahead of the clash against the relegation-threatened Kiezkicker, coach Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the intensive work during the week and the lessons learnt. The Dane also announced the good news that Ibrahim Maza is available again.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen are strengthening the squad for next season with the addition of Serbia U19 international Aleksa Damjanovic. The 17-year-old centre-forward is set to join the Bundesliga club in the summer from Serbian champions Red Star Belgrade. Damjanovic, who also has Austrian citizenship, has signed a long-term contract.
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