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Xhaka called London home for seven years during his time at Arsenal and said he had a “great time here”. Now the Switzerland international returns for the first time with Bayer 04 and is preparing for an encounter at the London Stadium, where the 31-year-old experienced a number of exciting match-ups. “There are regularly over 60,000 people in the stadium. Same again tomorrow. And they definitely won’t be there for us. But we come here with great confidence from the first leg and want to progress. That’s clear,” he said.
When asked, the midfielder didn’t want the weekend’s title celebrations to be an excuse for Thursday. “Obviously we celebrated a little, but within reason. We have a big task ahead of us again tomorrow. We want to reach the semi-finals. We’re very hungry.”
Coach Alonso is expecting a “hard game. West Ham showed Freiburg that they can overcome a first-leg defeat.” The Hammers had lost 1-0 in Germany in their round of 16 tie but then progressed thanks to a 5-0 win back at home. “We’ll play our game and definitely won’t just defend. That’s not our way,” he added.
The Spaniard firmly believes that the Werkself will again perform well in this second leg: “The players give me no doubt about believing in them. Their concentration, focus and hunger are special.”
The Werkself can count on the support of over 3,000 travelling fans from Leverkusen for a sold-out away section at the London Stadium.
One person who isn’t in the UK capital is Borja Iglesias. “He’s got muscular problems. We need to wait and see how things are with him in the coming days. It could well be that he also misses Dortmund. We need to see with him and Adam Hlozek whether they’ll be ready for the Stuttgart game,” explained Alonso, who otherwise has a full squad at his disposal. And they are all ready, as the coach explained, since “we want to take our big chance in the Europa League as well.”
A record stage for the Bayer 04 Women in Munich – and fans can get behind their team together in front of the TV. For the opening match in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga on Saturday, 6 September (kick-off: 17:45 CEST) the Werkself have organised a watch party at the Schwadbud. While the team led by coach Roberto Pätzold face Bayern Munich in front of 45,000 spectators at the Allianz Arena, supporters can also provide vocal support from back home. There will also be a star prize raffled amongst everyone taking part.
Show moreExclusive insights into the Bayer 04 Women's training camp: Hard training sessions and ice baths, a karaoke team evening with Carlotta Wamser as Eminem, a friendly against VfL Wolfsburg and goalkeeper Charlotte Voll with her VLOG on the team day out to Regensburg. All that, up closer than ever before, is in the training camp recap from Rieden in Upper Bavaria.
Show moreThe first away game in the 2025/26 Bundesliga season: The Werkself travel to Werder Bremen on matchday two on Saturday, 30 August (kick-off: 15:30 CEST). The Bayer 04 Fan Liaison team brings you the latest information on the fixture at the Weserstadion…
Show moreBayer 04 Leverkusen go into the 2025/26 Bundesliga season with another partner in the Sponsors Club. The previous Executive Box partner pure.energy has extended their commitment and taken the established partnership with the current German runners-up to the next highest level. The newly defined cooperation between Bayer 04 and pure.energy is set to run for two years to 30 June 2027.
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