In sunshine and a chilly two degrees, the Werkself Women dominated proceedings early on against the second division side but initially lacked ideas up front. The first real chance came in the eleventh minute – and it worked out brilliantly: Verena Wieder put Leverkusen 1-0 up. Bayer 04 had the clear majority of possession , always tried to find the right answer with their play and moved well when they were on the ball. However, there was a certain hesitancy in finishing in one or two situations.
On 35 minutes, Milena Nikolic played a long ball to Dóra and she doubled the lead at 2-0. And, five minutes later, the striker combined with her fellow Hungarian teammate Henrietta Csiszár to make it 3-0. Bocholt had a chance just before half-time with a shot that rolled along the bar but Anna Wellmann in goal would have made the save.
Feifel reshuffled his team for the second half by bringing on four fresh pairs of legs. And substitute Gianna Rackow carried on where her teammates had left off in the first 45 minutes. The 20-year-old exploited a mistake by the opposition keeper to score with a tap-in to put Leverkusen 4-0 up on the hour mark. Almost straight away, Csiszár had a shot into an empty net for the fifth goal.
Applause and celebration on the Leverkusen bench for Sofie Zdebel on 73 minutes. The homegrown player scored her first goal for the Bayer 04 Women with an impressive volley to put Bayer 04 6-0 ahead. Rackow rounded off the scoring at 7-0 when she put the ball through the Bocholt goalkeeper’s legs (83’)
“We wanted to dominate the game with solid possession and being constructive going forwards. We were able to build our attacks through the middle and central midfield. That worked well overall, also because the opposition gave us the opportunities,” said a happy Achim Feifel after the game but he can see the potential for improvement in converting chances: “There were a lot of clear-cut chances where we should have done better. Overall, this friendly was better than the game against Werder Bremen last week.“
In the final test before the league restart, Feifel used players who had less minutes during the first half of the season. “We’ve got a big injury list and we have to compensate for that. Every individual player has to up their game. We don’t want to relax after the first half of the season with what we’ve achieved but instead carry on being successful in the Bundesliga.
First half: Wellmann – Sahlmann, Turanyi, Vinken, Kempe, Wirtz, Wieder, Kögel, Zeller, Csiszár, Nikolic
Second half: Klink – Rackow, Matysik, Marti, Büchner, Reger, Zdebel, Garofalo, Turanyi, Wirtz, Zeller
Goals: 1-0 Wieder (11’), 2-0 Zeller (35’), 3-0 Zeller (40’), 4-0 Rackow (60’), 5-0 Csiszár (60’), 6-0 Zdebel (73’), 7-0 Rackow (83’)
After six and a half years, Exequiel Palacios is leaving the Bundesliga and moving from Bayer 04 to the Premier League. The Argentine, who as a Werkself player won the World Cup with his national team four years ago and finished as runners-up at this summer’s tournament, will play for newly promoted English side Ipswich Town with immediate effect. The 27-year-old, whose contract in Leverkusen was due to run until 30 June 2030, joined Bayer 04 in January 2020 as a promising young talent. He steadily developed into one of the best defensive midfielders in the German top flight.
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When Exequiel Palacios moved from the Argentinian club River Plate to Bayer Leverkusen on 1 January 2020, the then 21-year-old could not have imagined just how successful the next six and a half years would be for him. Pala, as he is known, had already won the Copa Libertadores – the most prestigious competition in South American club football – with River Plate. But there were still so many more trophies to come.
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To mark Exequiel Palacios’s departure, we’ve put together a compilation of the midfielder’s finest and most important goals from his six-and-a-half years at the club.
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Newly promoted SV 07 Elversberg will begin the 2026/27 season as Bundesliga club number 59. The Saarland club start their first Bundesliga campaign at home to the Werkself on Saturday, 29 August (kick-off 15:30 CEST) at the URSAPHARM Arena on Kaiserlinde, which is currently being rebuilt. For one Leverkusen player in the ‘Elv’ line-up, the clash will be a special reunion. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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Ernest Poku is leaving Bayer 04 Leverkusen to play in the Turkish Süper Lig. The club has loaned the Dutch winger to Beşiktaş for one year. If certain criteria are met, the Istanbul club – who finished fourth in the Turkish top flight last season – will be obliged to make the move permanent.
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