On the back of the 2-1 win in the first leg at the BayArena, the Black and Reds flew out from Cologne/Bonn Airport on a charter flight – a Luxair Boeing 737-800 – bound for the second biggest city in Portugal. The plane set off with a slight delay from the snow-covered Rhineland and landed at 12.42 local time with the temperature at 15 degrees, with light cloud and sunshine in Porto.
The team checked into the Sheraton Hotel in the afternoon, five kilometres away from tomorrow’s venue the Estádio do Dragão. The travel time in the city with its population of 250.000 is much shorter than for the Champions League away game in Moscow (2:0 at Lokomotiv) – and a great advantage in terms of local logistics.
Long-term injury Kevin Volland did not fly out following the successful operation on his left ankle. Midfielder Charles Aránguiz did not make the flight to the Atlantic coast – even though that was just a precaution. The Chilean is suffering with a bout of flu and the medical section did not want to take any risks. It is possible Aránguiz may be available for the top match at RB Leipzig on Sunday, 1 March (kick-off: 15.30 CET).
Rudi Völler, sporting managing director at the Werkself, did travel with the team. The 59-year-old faced the media ahead of departure from Germany. Völler declared: “We played well in the first game and unfortunately conceded near the end of the game. 2-1 is a dangerous result but we are always capable of creating chances and scoring goals as we’ve seen away to good opponents in the Bundesliga. Only defending against such a good team as Porto is not an option.”
Central defender Sven Bender backed him up: “It would be insane to play for a 0-0 draw. We’re going to play to win!” Playmaker Kai Havertz warned: “It was a blow conceding at home. We can be dangerous away and score goals.” Nadiem Amiri saw that as a key to success: “We just have to score but we can do that with our quality up front. If we score, we can go through.”
A remarkable stat suggests scoring at Porto is on the cards: The Werkself have scored in every game this year – with a grand total of 21 goals in eight games. However, it will be anything but easy to find the back of the net against Porto with their strength at home even though they are without key defender Pepe due to injury.
Winter signing and Portugal expert Edmond Tapsoba will be at the pre-match press conference. The Mali international has got off to a flying start with the Werkself and is now a first choice for the back line. The Portuguese media have requested the presence of the 21-year-old. All clubs are obliged by UEFA to provide a player and their head coach for the press conference ahead of the game. Here’s to a successful return to Portugal!
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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