The Werkself completed the final pre-match training session at the Grands Stade de Nice in dry weather and temperatures of around ten degrees. Also with the squad are youngsters Emrehan Gedikli and Cem-Tuna Türkmen. The latter has received his first call-up to the first-team squad. Also on the pitch were Nadiem Amiri, Karim Bellarabi and Edmond Tapsoba. All three missed last weekend's 0-0 draw with Hertha Berlin but are now back in the squad under head coach Peter Bosz for the Europa League clash with Nice on Thursday night 3 December (kick-off: 21.00 CET). Bayer04.de provides impressions from the final pre-match training session:
The obligatory pre-match press conference was held before the training session. And the club staff from Nice plus the French journalists were suitably impressed that Peter Bosz and Jonathan Tah replied to the questions from the hosts in French. Jonathan Tah, whose father comes from the Ivory Coast, did not hold back from making the interpreter aware of a slight error in translation. In his usual charming way and not with the verve of a German coach in England – the female interpreter acknowledged the mistake with a smile.
The head coach also communicated in the lingua franca. Peter Bosz played for Sporting Toulon from 1988 to 1991. That city is some 150 kilometres away from Nice and also on the Mediterranean. "I like the Côte d'Azur very much and I really enjoyed my time at Toulon," said Bosz.
Our head coach spelled out the Werkself targets at the press conference. "We want to win again and finish top of our group," said the Dutchman whose team can even afford to lose by less than four goals on the Côte d'Azur and still progress to the knockout rounds. The situation for the hosts is rather different. With just three points to date, there is just an outside chance of progressing to the next round.
"I'll field the best team I can to win this game. We have to work together," said Nice coach Patrick Vieira. Nice are currently eleventh in Ligue 1. In spite of the result (2-6) from the first meeting with the Werkself at the BayArena, the World Cup winner of 1998 was able to draw a couple of positives from his team's performance. "If you look closely at the first game then we were only poor in the final 15 minutes. We just have to play our game."
In addition to his key defender Dante, who used to play for Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach, Vieira is also missing striker Kasper Dolberg. Right-back Youcef Atal is also sidelined.
Maurizio Mariani is in charge of the Europa League game between the side from the south of France and the Werkself. The 38-year-old Italian referees Bayer 04 for the first time although he has already been on the pitch with a Black and Red duo back in November: Mariani was in charge of the Nations League game between Austria and Northern Ireland. Julian Baumgartlinger and Aleksandar Dragovic were in the starting line-up for the 2-1 win for the Austrians.
The match is being broadcast live on free TV. RTL Nitro start their coverage from the studio in Cologne at 20.15 CET. Presenter Laura Wontorra is the host for the evening with the Roman Weidenfeller filling the role of the pundit. Marco Hagemann and Steffen Freund will commentate the game. The streaming service DAZN is also showing #OGCNB04 live.
Black and Red fans can tune into Werks11 Radio from 20.30 CET. Cedric Pick will start broadcasting 30 minutes before kick-off. Unfortunately, his congenial partner Niko Hartmann is unavailable due to illness. Log on at bayer04.de or via the Bayer 04 app.
From the south of France to the south of Poland: Peter Hyballa, Leverkusen U19 coach from 2014 to 2016, this week took over the helm at the Polish first division club Wisla Kraków. Poland is the sixth country where the 44-year-old has worked as a coach. Up to now, Hyballa has coached in Germany, Namibia, Austria, Slovakia and the Netherlands.
The former Werkself head coach Heiko Herrlich celebrates his 49th birthday on Thursday. The Mannheim-born coach took over from Tayfun Korkut in the summer of 2017 and was in charge for 64 matches up to Christmas 2018. Herrlich can also look back at his days as a player under the Bayer Cross: The centre forward joined Leverkusen from the SC Freiburg U19s in 1989. In his four years at Leverkusen, he played a total of 75 Bundesliga matches (six goals) – and won the DFB Cup with the Black and Reds in 1993.
Herrlich signed for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the same year and he ended his playing career at Borussia Dortmund in 2004. Herrlich is currently the coach at Bundesliga club FC Augsburg. Many happy returns, Heiko.
Dirk Heinen also celebrates his birthday this Thursday – he is 50. Before Heinen was signed up at Bayer 04 by the then youth coach Reiner Calmund, he played for the youth team at Rot-Weiß Köln-Zollstock. The former goalkeeper started his career at Leverkusen with the U19 side. He was finally called up to the first-team squad in 1989 and then became the regular first choice shot-stopper.
Heinen played in goal 107 times for the Werkself and celebrated winning the cup in 1992/93 with the Black and Reds including Heiko Herrlich. The Cologne-born keeper was in goal for the Werkself for 18 years from 1981. Heinen ended his playing career at Armenia Bielefeld in 2008. Bayer 04 wish Dirk a happy birthday.
Bayer 04 Women missed out on victory in the Google Pixel Bundesliga as they were held to a draw at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. Estrella Merino Gonzalez had put the Werkself ahead directly from a corner at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion, before Laura Freigang levelled for the visitors as it finished all square between fourth and third on Matchday 7.
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Freiburg have made an impressive start to the season, unbeaten in nine games across all competitions, with eight of them wins. Now the Bundesliga leaders come to the BayArena on Sunday to take on the Werkself, but Julian Schuster’s team will be missing their top scorer. Here’s the lowdown on our next opponent.
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Bayer 04 will have to manage without attacking midfielder Martin Terrier for the time being. The Frenchman sustained a muscle injury to his left hamstring yesterday, Thursday 15 October, during the Europa League game against Polish champions Lech Poznan (4–0). Terrier is not expected to be available until late December.
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Following the international break, the Bayer 04 women’s team face their next head-to-head clash in the race for a top spot in the Bundesliga. In Saturday’s home match (14:00 CEST), the fourth-placed side host third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Head coach Roberto Pätzold is well aware of the great opportunity this presents for his team.
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