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.
SAB-P GmbH is to become Bayer 04 Leverkusen's first official inclusion partner. The company, which has previously been involved in the club's Business Club, is underlining its social commitment to inclusion with an agreement that runs until 31 May 2027. Among other things, it will be the shirt sponsor of the Inclusion Team from the 2026/27 season onwards.
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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 as he worked 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 personalised 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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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 3-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday 20 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...
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Kasper Hjulmand has led the Werkself back to winning ways and is back in the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League with Bayer 04 after the 3-0 win against Villarreal on Wednesday evening. In an interview with the Werkself magazine at the BayArena in the team meeting room, directly opposite the dressing room, he provided some special insights for the current issue, which was published in January. A conversation with the 53-year-old coach about values, attitudes and personal experiences as well as interests outside of football.
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