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.
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
Show more
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…
Show more
Having previously recorded six consecutive home wins across all competitions, Bayer 04 suffered their first home defeat of 2026/27 as they went down 4-2 to VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Matchday 8. The visitors capitalised on their first two chances to score, with Ermedin Demirovic and Jamie Leweling finding the net in the first half. Although Patrik Schick got a goal back in the first half, Bilal El Khannouss and Demirovic again added further goals for Stuttgart. Bayer 04 didn’t give up, but Ibrahim Maza’s goal proved little more than a consolation.
Show more
Fans at the BayArena got to enjoy a spectacle on Wednesday as the Werkself came from behind to beat Nürnberg 5-2 in the DFB Pokal. Now with the sixth home game of the season, can Bayer 04 maintain their perfect record in Leverkusen as VfB Stuttgart come to town in the Bundesliga on Saturday (15:30 CET)? The visitors have had issues domestically this term, sitting in 15th place, although they have had much better results in the UEFA Champions League. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the Matchday 8 encounter…
Show more
The Bayern Munich women’s football team are unbeaten in all domestic competitions in the last 62 matches. On Sunday (15:00 CET), the Bayer 04 women’s team will make their next attempt to end the holders unbeaten run in the DFB Pokal Round of 16 tie. For coach Roberto Pätzold, there are a number of factors that give the Werkself cause for optimism despite the high-calibre opposition.
Show more
