After a good start to the season with ten points from six games resulting in fifth place in the table, the Werkself Women are looking to continue in that vein at Essen and further secure the position in the top of the table. Essen have not made a good start to the new term. Last season’s cup finalists have only won two games so far with all the other matches ending in defeat.
“Essen have a young team that can play good football, they want to have a go, are dynamic and also try to play on the front foot against good opponents,” said Achim Feifel. SGS went through a period of transition in the summer with twelve players coming and going. Among the departures were the four Germany internationals Marina Hegering, Lea Schüller, Lena Oberdorf and Turid Knaak plus Nina Brüggemann who signed for Leverkusen in the summer after five years playing for Essen. SGS Essen have opted to sign younger players and now have the youngest squad in the league on average.
“Our opponents are difficult to predict,” added Feifel, who is expecting a game on equal terms, “so we primarily want to look after our own game. We have to show our strengths on the pitch as we did against Frankfurt.”
After the double fixture week, the coach allowed his players chance to recover their strength ahead of the last match before the international break. The intensity of the sessions was varied for the players with the heaviest workloads – players who have had less time on the pitch were given more to do. On Thursday, everybody – with the exception of long-term injuries plus Sylwia Matysik (muscular problem) – returned to full training.
Due to the high infection rate in the city of Essen, Sunday’s game will be played behind closed doors. That conforms to the coronavirus prevention order issued by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 1-2 loss against VfL Wolfsburg on the 2nd matchday of the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga 2026/27.
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Bayer 04’s eight opponents in the group stage of the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League have been confirmed. At the draw on Friday 28 August held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, the Werkself were drawn against two opponents from each of the four pots. There are a total of four home and four away matches. Read on for details of opponents and fixture dates.
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In the 3-2 defeat at Bundesliga newcomers SV 07 Elversberg, the Werkself found the back of the net in the closing stages and, with a bit of luck, could still have equalised. “Today, our play wasn’t good enough, particularly when it came to the basics,” said head coach Carles Martínez. Like the boss, Ibrahim Maza also wants to learn from the match and look ahead: “Next week, people should be able to see from the very first minute that we want it more than our opponents.” The Werkself review on the Bundesliga opener in 2026/27.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-3 loss at SV 07 Elversberg on Matchday 1 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season...
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No points to start the league campaign: Bayer 04 lost 3-2 away to newly promoted SV 07 Elversberg in the first Bundesliga match of the 2026/27 campaign. Two quick-fire goals from Lukas Petkov (8’) and Cole Campbell (10’) gave the hosts an early lead, before David Mokwa scored the Saarland side’s third shortly after half-time (46’). In the closing stages, the Werkself rallied and staged a late comeback with goals from Patrik Schick (77’) and Christian Kofane (90+1’), but the Black and Reds were denied an equaliser.
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