There were celebrations galore in Molde at the weekend as they brought home the domestic cup in Norway for the sixth time in their history, after coach Erling Moe’s side beat freshly crowned league champions Bodo/Glimt 1-0 in Oslo. The golden goal came in the 89th minute through striker Frederik Gulbrandsen.
After the final whistle, the team first celebrated with the fans in the stadium before taking the party back to the people of Molde in the evening. It was a nice end to a season that perhaps didn’t quite go to plan as the reigning Norwegian champions only finished fifth in the Eliteserien to miss out on European qualification. Their final game of the league campaign a fortnight ago was a 1-1 draw with 11th-placed HamKam. It was ultimately a meaningless game given they finished 10 points off the top three and Europe, and 19 behind new champions Bodo/Glimt. However, winning the cup will see them enter the first rounds of qualifying for the 2024/25 Europa League.
It meant their attentions turned to that cup final, but now focus is now on the final game of the Europa League group stage. Molde still have it all to play for, coming into Matchday 6 with seven points in third place. They are only behind second-placed Qarabag on their head-to-head record. The Norwegians looked set to go ahead after coming from 1-0 down to lead through two late Kristian Eriksen goals late in their Matchday 5 encounter, but the Azerbaijani side grabbed an equaliser five minutes into added time.
It all means that the Norwegians must achieve a better result at the BayArena than Qarabag do at home to Häcken on Thursday. That would see them claim second place and through to the play-off rounds. Otherwise, Molde will be into the Conference League play-offs.
Molde proved on their artificial pitch back in October that they can be really awkward opponents. Early goals from Jeremie Frimpong and Nathan Tella put Xabi Alonso’s side on course for the 2-1 win, but the hosts made a good showing of things in the second half, with Matej Kovar denying Magnus Eikrem, and Eric Kitolano striking the post. A late goal from Emil Breivik set up a tense finish, with an excellent Kovar stop earning the Werkself all three points in Norway.
Molde then went on to win both games against Häcken, scoring eight goals across the 5-1 and 3-1 victories. Their 11 goals this campaign is second to Bayer 04 in Group H with 14. Eriksen is their top scorer with four of his own, placing him on a par with Victor Boniface.
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
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“As far as mentality and determination are concerned, we have nothing to reproach ourselves for,” Robert Andrich said up after the first home defeat for the Werkself this term. In terms of their play, too, the Black and Reds put in a respectable performance for long stretches of this intense and physical match, outperforming VfB Stuttgart in most areas. It was only in terms of efficiency in front of goal that the Swabians had the edge over the Werkself. Head coach Carles Martínez wants to learn from this so that, in future, they can “win this sort of match too”. The Werkself review.
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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 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…
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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.
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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…
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