The travelling party are staying at the Hotel Apartamento Dunamar, 2.5 kilometres from the training ground and overlooking the Atlantic Ocean directly on the beach in Monte Gordo. In the coastal community of 3,197 inhabitants in Faro, the Leverkusen players will work on their game ahead of the resumption of Bundesliga action on Friday 23 January (18:30 CET) at Union Berlin with a total of seven training sessions, an internal friendly on Monday and a further friendly against Swiss league leaders Servette FCCF. In addition to six sessions on the pitch, the team will complete a stamina and regeneration session on Tuesday. There will also be an excursion to the neighbouring town of Tavira and a team night out on Tuesday and a team-building session on Thursday.
After arriving early on Saturday morning, the first session in the late afternoon focussed on getting used to the pitch and the ball, with the team starting the training camp with a rondo and football tennis. Things got much more intense on Sunday: Carlotta Wamser and Co. first worked on tactics and game structure in the morning, followed by detailed work on various set-piece variations in the late afternoon.
Pätzold: "make very good use of the time here"
"We are happy we were able to take almost all the players with us, have a good hotel with good food, great training conditions with a gym right next to the stadium and short distances by bus. We have a good pitch for the time of year and the weather is also good. So we can make the most of our time here," says Pätzold: "After a short night and a warm-up training session, we had a really good tactical session for the first time today. We were able to do a lot more than last week at home. We're looking forward to the next few days and hope that the weather holds."
