Patrik Schick made his first start in over 400 days and needed only six minutes to get on the scoresheet when he opened proceedings with a long-range effort. It was his second goal of this European campaign. The Werkself’s next came after 22 minutes when Jonas Hofmann crossed following a short corner for Edmond Tapsoba to head home. It was 3-0 seconds later when Nathan Tella’s cross was turned into his own net by Martin Ellingsen. Things continued in a similar vein in the second half, with Adam Hlozek quickly adding a fourth as he finished a blistering counter-attack. Leverkusen’s other Czech striker then emulated his compatriot with a shot from even further out, this one finding the back of the net via the help of a deflection. His brace saw Hlozek named Man of the Match by Bayer 04 fans. His seven shots were also the joint-most by a Leverkusen player in a Europa League game this season. Molde then got one back with their first real chance through Eric Kitolano on 75 minutes to round off the 5-1 result. You can read our extended match report here.
Head coach Xabi Alonso summarised: “At the moment we’ve got great team spirit and commitment from the players. It’s about playing a good game and also being competitive. And we achieved that here. But we still shouldn’t take it as a given and should continue to work for each game. It’s a real joy for me to work with all the players because you can really sense their hunger. And it’s a great feeling for me as coach to sense that.”
Niklas Lomb, who was making his first start since February 2021’s Europa League encounter with Young Boys, was also happy in front of the Werkself-TV microphone: “It was real fun today at home in front of the fans. I’m grateful for the recognition. I know my role but will always give my all, in training, on the pitch and in every discussion. We’re just playing amazing football. We showed from the start today who was going to win this. We’re working hard for a lot of things. It’s not all coming by chance.” Tella also praised the team spirit after his own excellent display: “The team was really good today. We prepared as we always do, even though we were already qualified. We’re having a good season. Everybody wants to take their chance when they play, just like I wanted to take mine today.”
The Rheinische Post called it a “flawless group stage”, which was similar to the Express: “Leverkusen completed the first perfect group stage by any team in the Europa League for three years with a goal festival from its B team.” The headline from the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger was: “B team also scoring for fun”, also handing Robert Andrich the best rating of any player: “A really good display from the newly capped Germany international, organising things with his words and feet. Played a number of great passes after winning possession.” Express also spoke of Schick’s “blistering comeback”, while Bild called it a “Schick fairy tale”.
Ken Izekor’s substitution 77 minutes into the game made him the youngest German player ever to feature in the Europa League/UEFA Cup, aged 16 years and 204 days. He surpasses Borussia Dortmund’s Youssoufa Moukoko, who was 17 years and 89 days when he first appeared.
And it was notable even after Lomb had celebrated with the team in front of the crowd after the game and did a lap of the ground, the fans were still cheering loudly for him, so the goalkeeper came back once more and started a Mexican wave with them.
The Werkself dominated proceedings with 67 percent possession and a passing rate of 92.6 percent. The Norwegians edged it on challenges with 59.5 percent won. Leverkusen also had 21 attempts on goal compared to Molde’s eight. Bayer 04 scored in all six games of the group stage, netting a competition-leading 19 goals.
The Werkself finish out this year with two home games in the Bundesliga. Eintracht Frankfurt are the visitors this Sunday (17:30 CET), before Bochum come to the BayArena to bring down the curtain on 2023 on Wednesday (20:30).
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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A bitter end to the fifth showdown of the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship as the #B04eSports team failed to take any points in the three remaining matches of the preliminary online round of the fifth and final showdown, missing out on the offline round. They can no longer take points in the overall table. Bayer 04 slipped out on the top eight, so direct participation in the final event for the German Club Championship is no longer possible, with Bayer 04 having to contest the play-offs.
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