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“The feeling and mood within the team are good and all of us are really looking forward to the final,” said Xabi Alonso on Wednesday afternoon. “After winning the league, we can achieve great success in the Europa League and then the DFB Pokal as well.”
The opponents in the final, Atalanta, are fifth in the table in Serie A and on course for a Champions League finish also thanks to current impressive form with 13 points gained in the last five league games. Like the Werkself, the North Italian side are in the final of the Italian cup competition with Juventus providing the opposition tonight in the Coppa Italia. In the Europa League, they have knocked out Sporting CF, Liverpool and Olympique Marseille. “Atalanta are currently one of the toughest opponents in Europe,” said Alonso.
The 42-year-old Spaniard shared words of praise for his fellow coach Gian Piero Gasperini. The 66-year-old Italian has coached Atalanta since the summer of 2016. Alonso: “He has a clear plan and built up a team with strong mentality and high quality in depth. They are a top team. We’ll have a chance if we produce our best form. It will be a great final, very tight and interesting for the fans.”
While Alonso won nearly every competition in his time as a player, winning the Europa League remains to be achieved. He can now make that up as a head coach. Asked about that, the title-winning Leverkusen coach declared: “My trophies as a player are in the past. Now it’s time to win titles as a coach.”.
The fact this season has turned out to be such a great success was something Alonso did not foresee last summer. “We have a clear target of qualifying for the Champions League. On top of that, we wanted to play good and attractive football. Winning the Bundesliga and being in two finals was not necessarily realistic in August. But after two or three games we saw early on what was possible and that we could achieve something exceptional”
One factor in the success, named by Alonso, is day-to-day work plus open communication between the players and the coaching staff. “We learn from each other every day and I’ve learned a lot as a coach in the time up to now. We have done very well so far even though there have been a couple of mistakes of course. Now we will focus fully on the last Bundesliga game and prepare for the two finals.”
The Werkself will host VfB Stuttgart at the BayArena on matchday 16 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season. The game is on Saturday, 10 January, at 18:30 CET. Information on ticket sales.
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The Werkself will host Werder Bremen at the BayArena on matchday 19 of the 2025/26 Bundesliga season. The game is on Saturday, 24 January, at 15:30 CET. Information on ticket sales.
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The next opponents in the 2025/26 DFB Pokal have been announced: Bayer 04 will host Bundesliga rivals FC St. Pauli in the quarter-finals. That was the outcome of the draw held this Sunday evening, 7 December, at the German Football Museum in Dortmund, where long-time Bundesliga player and coach Friedhelm Funkel made the draw. The Werkself will play their quarter-final tie on 3-4 or 10-11 February 2026. The exact dates have yet to be finalised.
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After falling behind early on, Bayer 04 took control of the game against a combative and disciplined FC Augsburg on Saturday afternoon. However, they lacked the necessary precision in finishing and hit the post and crossbar three times. After the game, coach Kasper Hjulmand said he wanted to get back to the "right philosophy" of previous matches with three games left in 2025. The Werkself review.
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Bayer 04 were beaten 2-0 away at Augsburg on Matchday 13 in the Bundesliga. The Werkself had the majority of the ball but fell behind early to Dimitrios Giannoulis and then Anton Kade inside the first half an hour. Despite an attempted fightback in the second half and striking the frame of the goal three times, Leverkusen were left empty handed.
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