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"We are happy that all the international players were back in Leverkusen by yesterday. We talked a lot to each other yesterday and we will train together again for the first time today. But having so little time to prepare is not new to us," said Alonso at the start of the press conference on Friday. The Spaniard added: "We are currently benefiting from our preseason when we played a lot of games. That ensures we have a certain consistency in every game and can directly put our plans into action. So there will be no excuses tomorrow."
The good news is that all Werkself players have returned from international duty free of injury. The squad is therefore almost complete. Alonso still has to manage without the services of Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Arthur and Ayman Aourir. The Spanish coach will decide who will be in the squad for the game against VfL Wolfsburg after the final training session on Friday afternoon: "We have great competition for all positions, everybody has great quality, almost everybody is fit. That makes the decision all the more difficult for me as a coach but I prefer it to everything being straightforward. That shows all the players are always ready and that we have a high degree of flexibility and balance."
An example of that was the introduction of Amine Adli, Nathan Tella and Adam Hlozek in the 3-0 derby win against FC Köln: "They brought new energy into our game so we were able to maintain the tempo over 90 minutes," said the Spaniard before adding: "That's what we're looking for. We want to play consistent and mature football."
A first appearance for striker Patrik Schick in seven months is "entirely realistic" according to Alonso. The Czechia international has "completed almost all the training sessions in the last two weeks. But we want to take it step-by-step with him just as we did with Flo (Wirtz, ed.), " said Alonso as he praised the attitude of the 27-year-old: "We see his quality in every training session. We need him, his goals and his personality. You can see that he's happy again and feels better. We’re really happy about that."
Wolfsburg, who have yet to lose a home game this season, were described by the 41-year-old as a "strong team who have a great coach in Niko Kovac. They signed lots of players in the summer with high quality and the right mentality. It will be a big challenge."
An impressive 2,530 Bayer 04 fans will be supporting the team at the Volkswagen Arena. Tickets will also be available on the day at the ground.
They narrowly missed out on the title in the spring of this year as they enjoyed their most successful season to date under the Bayer Cross. Now they want to build on that success. In an interview ahead of today's start of the new season in the VBL Club Championship by WOW (live on the Bayer 04 app from 18:00 CEST), the two Bayer 04 eSports players and cousins Marc and Sean Landwehr talk about the organisational changes to the VBL CC and their everyday lives as professional gamers and they also give pro tips for the new EA FC 26.
Show moreA Black and Red player in the U20 World Cup final in Chile. Alejo Sarco and Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 in the semi-final on Wednesday night. Morocco, who knocked out France, now await in the final on Sunday night.
Show moreHere we go! The new season of the VBL Club Championship by WOW starts on Thursday, 16 October. The games can be seen live on the Bayer 04 app and on the club Twitch channel. Bayer04.de presents an overview of the first opponents for the Leverkusen eSports team in the new season.
Show moreThe autumn holidays attracted a host of Bayer 04 fans to the BayArena on Tuesday, 14 October. An open training session for the Werkself in the morning ended with the players taking time out for selfies and autograph requests from the 160 or so fans in attendance. During a children's press conference organised by Barmenia Gothaer, Werkself player Arthur and Kristin Kögel from the Bayer 04 Women's team fielded questions posed by the youngsters. Meanwhile, a trio of young players from the Leverkusen U19 squad put a smile on everyone's faces at a meet & greet event. And fans enjoyed a range of exciting activities at the Fanwelt.
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