
The competition in Europe's most respected tournament for veterans teams will know what to expect: The Bayer 04 Vets have taken part in this big indoor event in the capital seven times to date and four times they have brought the title back to the Rhineland; 2011, 2012, 2013 and, most recently, in January 2019. The eleventh tournament in 2020 is being held under the slogan "Experience football legends live!" Bayer 04 are in Group A with the two western rivals Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 plus Dinamo Tbilisi from Georgia and Group B is made up of the three Berlin clubs Hertha, FC Union and Tennis Borussia plus Werder Bremen. "We've done really well in Berlin up to now and hopefully that won't change," said Dirk Dreher, manager of the veterans team.
The Bayer 04 Vets played outdoors last week. In the Klosterpforten Cup in Marienfeld, an established competition on small pitches, the Werkself 'Oldies' made a very impressive start but unfortunately had to bow out in the quarter-finals thanks to a 1-0 defeat against a company team, Melos. "We created enough chances for two matches but kept on being frustrated by their outstanding goalkeeper. And then the opposition scored the winner from their one chance," said Dreher. In the group matches, Bayer 04 clocked up three convincing 3-0 victories against Steinel (goals from Erdal Celik, Ioannis Masmanidis and Hüzeyfe Dogan), Bethel (Dogan, Masmanidis, Assimiou Touré) and Schüco (Celik, Masmanidis, David Müller). The Round of 16 brought a 2-0 win against Hagedorn (Masmanidis, Marcel Podszus).

The Werkself need a win in their penultimate match of the season at RB Leipzig on Monday evening (18:00 CEST) to keep their hopes of third place alive until the final day. After Eintracht Frankfurt lost on Saturday, Roberto Pätzold's side can close the gap on their rivals to two points and leave it all to play for next Sunday.
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Werkself TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 1-3 loss at VfB Stuttgart on Matchday 33 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season...
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Down to fifth from fourth place despite taking an early lead: in the head-to-head for a Champions League spot, Bayer 04 were 1-0 up at VfB Stuttgart with just a minute played thanks to an Aleix Garcia strike, but ultimately lost 3-1 (2-1) to the more determined hosts. It meant the Swabians leapfrogged the Werkself in the Bundesliga table on the penultimate matchday.
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Today sees Bayer 04 go head-to-head with their next direct rivals in the race for Champions League qualification (kick-off 15:30 CEST). Opponents Stuttgart are currently fifth in the table, level on points with the Werkself but one place below them due to a three-goal inferior goal difference. The Black and Reds' record at Bad Cannstatt tells a clearer story: they've not lost at VfB for over 16 years. One important factor in securing what would be three crucial points away from home is Leverkusen's strength on the counter-attack. Whilst Stuttgart are also extremely dangerous going forward, they will be without their captain. Today’s matchday news.
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