Following on from Potsdam, the Bayer 04 Women face another top team at the weekend in VfL Wolfsburg. The Werkself Women can go into game in confident mood after last weekend’s win against Turbine and briefly being in fourth place. “Morale has obviously been good this week after the win,” said Feifel but he also sounded a warning: “Wolfsburg are a completely different proposition from Potsdam. We really have to take these opponents seriously...”
The Wolves won the league for the fourth time in succession last term with 62 out of a possible 66 points and without losing a single game. This season, the FC Bayern Women are also in the running for the title as they are top of the table ahead of Wolfsburg on 45 points. VfL are also competing to win the DFB Cup and the Champions League with the team beating the Norwegian club Lilleström SK Kvinner this week to progress to the quarter-finals.
Despite the opponents playing in the week, Feifel is expecting them to be dominant and have the majority of possession with his team having to defend well to stay in the match. It will be a completely different game from last week’s encounter with Potsdam. “But we will obviously take the positives into the game and that helps with self-belief. And we need that too! We can’t afford to be on the back foot and we have to be brave,” said the coach. The aim is to “get a good result” through competitive spirit, aggression and compact organisation.
In terms of personnel, Feifel has increasing options. Jessica Wich and Nina Brüggemann returned to full training this week. Still sidelined are Juliane Wirtz, struggling with a groin injury, and Viktoria Pinther with a back problem. There is also a question mark over Sylwia Matysik being fit in time for Sunday – “that would be a bitter blow. Sylwia with her ball-winning ability, which she showed against Potsdam, is incredibly important for us against opponents like that,” said the coach.
The 56-year-old announced a change in goal for Sunday. Anna Wellmann comes in for Anna Klink. “She has performed very well in training and will now get to play in one or two games,” Feifel explained, “she absolutely deserves it.”
The game for the Werkself Women will be broadcast live: The match is on MagentaTV at #dabeiTV on channel 18 or on MagentaSport. Bayer 04 will stream other Leverkusen Women’s games over the rest of the season on the club’s YouTube channel.
This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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From Ouagadougou to Leverkusen – and back: in March, Bayer 04 travelled with Edmond Tapsoba for a special project in his homeland Burkina Faso. The country where his roots and heart lie. The country where he’s more than a world-class defender: a symbol of hope and a role model for an entire generation. The result is a 45-minute documentary about Tapsoba’s long journey from Africa via Portugal to Leverkusen, which offers extraordinary, one-off and emotional insights.
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Edmond Tapsoba has signed an early extension to his contract with Bayer 04 Leverkusen. With two years left on his current deal, the 27-year-old Burkina Faso international has extended his contract until 30 June 2031. The centre-back joined as a young talent from Portuguese top-flight club Vitoria Guimaraes at the start of 2020.
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