Seoane sees the game against the team sitting sixth in Italy’s Serie A as a very complex endeavour. “Both teams are very attacking but also have a compact defence,” the 43-year-old said. The hosts may be without two strikers in Duvan Zapata and Josip Ilicic, but the Swiss tactician still regards Gian Piero Gasperini’s side as a good and dangerous collective. “They’ve developed well in recent years. It’ll be a tough job, but we can do it.”
Goalkeeper Hradecky has prior experience of facing Gasperini’s team. “I played a friendly here in Bergamo with Frankfurt in 2016 pre-season,” the 32-year-old stated at the press conference. “They were still on their way to the top in Italy at the time. Now they’re a very experienced European team.”
The Leverkusen No.1 is looking forward to an exciting tie against the Italians: “They are extremely aggressive and snappy, but we’ve studied their team well and have to show a mature performance tomorrow.”
Seoane has 19 players available to him for Thursday. The players who haven’t made the journey are goalkeeper Andrey Lunev (ankle), striker Patrik Schick (muscular), winger Karim Bellarabi (muscular), and midfielders Robert Andrich (knee problems), Julian Baumgartlinger (not in the European squad) and Kerem Demirbay (suspended).
Demirbay’s suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards means Seoane has already confirmed that Charles Aranguiz and Exequiel Palacios will be his two holding midfielders. “Both are well capable of being able to make a mark in attack and defence.”
Werkself player Montrell Culbreath and Bayer 04 loanee Francis Onyeka are part of Germany's final squad for the U19 European Championships this summer. The tournament is in Wales from 24 June to 12 July.
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Bayer 04 are away to third-division club SV Wehen Wiesbaden in the first round of the 2026/27 DFB Pokal. That was the outcome of the draw on Saturday night, 6 June, at the German Football Museum in Dortmund. The Werkself first round tie will be played between 21 and 24 August. The exact date has yet to be finalised.
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Carles Martìnez is raring to go. The 42-year-old speaks in his first interview in Leverkusen about the club's development to date and how he wants to build on it. He describes his previous work in France, Kuwait, Qatar and his native Barcelona, his experience in developing young players, and the key steps between now and the start of pre-season training.
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New Bayer 04 head coach Carles Martínez has arrived in Leverkusen! At midday on Friday, the 42-year-old spoke in a press conference at the BayArena about his philosophy and his aims. Managing director sport Simon Rolfes also discussed the reasons for appointing the former Toulouse boss.
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