The management of the Werkself youngsters were suitably disappointed. "At the end of the day it was a deserved win for Dresden," said coach Markus von Ahlen and his colleague Iraklis Metaxas added: "The lads didn't really do enough today."
Although Atakan Akkaynak, Sam Schreck and Jakub Bednarczyk, who all completed the pre-season with the Bayer 04 first team squad, were in the starting line-up, Leverkusen never found their usual and hoped-for form. "We set out to control the game but we didn't manage it. We played too slowly and, above all, we didn't function as a team. We weren’t decisive enough up front and too susceptible at the back," criticised von Ahlen.
The latter was clearly evident at set pieces with the dangerous Dresden side scoring their first two goals in that way on 15 and 56 minutes. "We lacked organisation and resolve," declared Metaxas. Güven Yalcin equalised seven minutes before the break and substitute Ömer Tokac levelled at 2-2 five minutes to play. "In those moves we succeeded in getting behind their defence. But we didn't do that enough," said von Ahlen. A minute after the second equaliser, the Dresden fans were able to celebrate the 3-2 scoreline as the Bayer 04 defence were again not compact and lacked energy in their approach.
The championship of the West group in the U19 Bundesliga starts for the Bayer 04 U19 side on Sunday 13 August with a crunch match away to Schalke 04 (11.00 CET). "We'll need to do much better than we did at Dresden if we’re going to to get a result," said von Ahlen.
Match stats:
Dynamo Dresden: Schneider – Vetterlein, Kusej (Ziehm 90'), Huber (Hauptmann 71’), Bär, Kulke, Jacob, Shubitidze, Atilgan (Engst 82’), Käppler, Stelzer
Bayer 04: Kucz – Shala, Stappmann, Boller, Popovic (Deveci 69’) – Schneider (Tokac 55’), Arik – Schreck, Akkaynak, Bednarczyk (Bukusu 78’) – Yalcin
Goals: 1-0 (15’) Atilgan, 1-1 (38’) Yalcin, 2-1 (56’), Atilgan, 2-2 (85’) Tokac, 3-2 (86’) Shubitidze
Referee: Schipke (Landsberg-Queis)
Booked: Shala, Stappmann, Tokac
Attendance: 692
Once again, well over 100 Werkself fans were delighted to receive an invitation from the club’s record appearance-maker, Rüdiger Vollborn, to the sold-out Schwadbud at the BayArena. This time, the supporters listened as the club historian provided fascinating, exclusive insights into the period from Bayer 04 being founded in 1904 to the club’s promotion to the Bundesliga in 1979. A journey through time is also planned for the upcoming ‘Rudi lädt ein’ event in early November – this time focusing on the years of the Nazi regime.
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Happy children’s faces at the SSV Lützenkirchen training ground: For the 25th time, the Birkenberg soccer school – organised by SportBund Leverkusen – offered participating youngsters an exciting holiday activity. Meeting a Bayer 04 player has now become a cherished tradition. This time, Ibrahim Maza visited the 150 children and spoke to them about his World Cup experiences, amongst other things. “It’s always lovely to see the children’s enthusiasm for football,” said the 20-year-old, after bringing a sparkle to many eyes with selfies and autographs.
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One day after the successful DFB Pokal first round tie at SV Wehen Wiesbaden (4–0), the mood was understandably really good: Over 400 Bayer 04 supporters gathered on Sunday, 23 August, for the annual fan club meet-up at the BayArena and got in the mood for the new season through direct and informal discussions with Bayer 04 management, head coach Carles Martínez and Werkself players.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of the Bayer 04 women's 2-0 win at RB Leipzig on the 1st matchday of the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga 2026/27.
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