The line-up is not only unusual but also reads like a Who's Who from the recent Werkself past. Bernd Schneider, Oliver Neuville, Simon Rolfes, Markus Happe, Boris Zivkovic and Marko Babic – honorary captains, Champions League finalists, crowd favourites, famous names in the history of the Black and Reds. They will all be wearing Bayer 04 shirts again on 2 December for the veterans game against Borussia Dortmund. As with the last match against FC Köln ahead of the Bundesliga derby, this meeting with Dortmund, kicking off at 13.30 CET at the Haberland Stadium, will be broadcast live on Facebook.
"We have an especially illustrious line-up for the game against BVB," said Dirk Dreher, general manager of the Veterans team, "It's incredible if you count up all the international caps the lads collected during their professional careers." And Dortmund are also likely to appear with a number of familiar faces – in the last fixture between the two teams a year ago their eleven included Frank Mill, David Odonkor and Knut Reinhardt – , so a visit to the Haberland Stadium will definitely serve to whet the appetite ahead of the Bundesliga clash against Borussia Dortmund (kick-off, 15.30 CET). Bayer 04 and Borussia will play a 60-minute game before watching the pros match at the BayArena.
Friday in Maastricht
The game against the black and yellows of Borussia will be the final match of the year and this Friday sees the final away trip in 2017 for the Leverkusen Old Boys with a visit to Holland. The veterans are in action in against their opposite numbers at Maastricht at 17.30 CET. The game has been organised by former Bayer 04 striker Erik Meijer who is the attacking coach at Maastricht. Afterwards the first team have a Jupiler League fixture against Helmond Sport in the second tier of Dutch football.
The fourth showdown in the VBL Club Championship 2025/26 starts for the Leverkusen eSports team today, Thursday 22 January (live on the B04eSports Twitch channel and on the Bayer 04 app from 19:00 CET). In the online preliminary round, the Black and Reds will once again compete with six previously drawn opponents for a place in the Top 16 and the associated entry into the offline knockout round in Berlin on 2 February at the fourth showdown. The lowdown on our next three opponents in the online preliminary round.
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The fourth European away trip of the season in the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 takes the Werkself to the Greek capital. Head coach Kasper Hjulmand's team are away to Greek double winners Olympiacos on matchday seven in the UCL league phase. The match at the Karaiskakis Stadium is on Tuesday, 20 January (kick-off: 21:00 CET). We'll be taking you on a trip to Athens and reporting on the Werkself close-up...
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A great honour for Bayer 04 Women's German international: as part of the 2025 Sports Awards, Carlotta Wamser entered her name into the City of Leverkusen's Golden Book. On Tuesday, she looked back on a special year in a talk in the Morsbroich Castle hall of mirrors.
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It was a disappointing night in Athens: The Werkself lost 2-0 away to Olympiacos on Matchday 7 in the league phase of the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League campaign. In a match that was intense and fiery from the outset, the high-pressing home side made the better start and took the lead through Costinha on two minutes. Although the Werkself had a number of chances to equalise, the clinical Greek side increased the lead to 2-0 shortly before half-time (45+1’). In the second half, Leverkusen once again gave their all and showed total commitment but, despite their best efforts, the Black and Reds were unable to break down the Olympiacos defence on the night.
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