
“Bailey leads Bayer to victory,” is the headline in the Kölnische Rundschau and the newspaper goes on to describe the Jamaican’s opening goal as follows: “After just five minutes, Bailey scored the opener after a great pass from U21 international Wirtz – all appeared to be going to plan for the favourites. But then the hosts hit back through Acolatse.”
The Werkself did hit back after the brace scored by the Dutchman. The Rheinische Post presents the second Leverkusen goal as follows: “From a corner, Jedvaj powered a header in direction of Levita who did parry the ball but then had to watch as it bounced back off the head of Or Dadia into the net (39’).”
The BILD explicitly mentions the change made by Peter Bosz at half-time that led him to move Leon Bailey into the centre of the attack – and reports: “Then Bailey did a brilliant job with his head when he bravely threw himself towards a cross from Kerem Demirbay, keeper Levita rushed out and caught Bailey on the back of the neck. The double goalscorer could take it – 3-2 (75’).”
Bailey earned even more praise from the Ruhr Nachrichten. “The Jamaican was the outstanding player, scored the opening goal and the crucial third with his head playing as the central striker in spite of only being 1.78 metres tall,” reports the journal.
The scorer of the goal to make it 4-2 is also mentioned positively in many reports. Florian Wirtz “is continuing to work on breaking records,” writes the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. “Set up the first goal and made it 4-2 with an excellent shot. At the age of 17 years and 6 months, the youngest German goalscorer and provider in the Europa League,” says the newspaper about the Werkself youngster who also scored on the first matchday in the 6-2 win against Nice.
Looking at the positions in the group, the EXPRESS reports: “The Werkself took a big step in the direction of the knockout rounds and are on course to be in Europe in the New Year with six points with two games at home in the remaining three matchdays.”

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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