"Melissa has consistently fought her way back from serious injury and is a real role model on and off the pitch. Her great loyalty to the club is impressive. We are all the more delighted that, with her vast experience, she will continue to play an important role in our team in the coming season," said Bayer 04 Women sporting director Achim Feifel. "When she recently made a return to the starting XI, she proved once again that we can rely on her at all times."
Despite suffering setbacks through a number of injury-related absences since arriving at Bayer 04 from 1. FFC Frankfurt nine years ago, Friedrich has made 102 competitive appearances (four goals). After they were relegated from the Bundesliga in 2017, she helped the Werkself achieve promotion at the first time of asking the following season. In the 2024/25 campaign, she had to make up a training deficit in the Hinrunde, but then went on to make four appearances in the Rückunde, three of them in the starting XI.
"I'm really looking forward to my tenth year at Bayer 04. It's always something special for me to play for this club, which has a special place in my heart," said Friedrich: "I'm happy that I'm fit, I want to support the team as best I can and play my part in another successful season."
Werkself TV shows highlights of the 2-0 win at Olympiacos in the first leg of the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 league...
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The Werkself beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-off first leg to claim a crucial victory in the Greek capital. After a focused first-half display with a number of presentable chances, Patrik Schick crowned a textbook counter to hand the Werkself the lead on the hour (60’). The Czech rounded off his brace when he headed in from a corner just 144 seconds later. Bayer 04 maintained their lead with aplomb to achieve a good position for the return leg in Leverkusen.
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Bayer 04 and Olympiacos had only met twice before the current UEFA Champions campaign. After the encounter on Matchday 7 of this season’s league phase, the Werkself travel to face the Greek side for the second time in just four weeks for the knockout play-off first leg. The Black and Reds were dominant for large spells in mid-January but lost 2-0 after missing a number of presentable chances. The Werkself aim to do better on Wednesday night to “seize the chance for revenge,” as managing director sport Simon Rolfes put it. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the game in our matchday news.
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A bitter end to the fifth showdown of the 2025/26 VBL Club Championship as the #B04eSports team failed to take any points in the three remaining matches of the preliminary online round of the fifth and final showdown, missing out on the offline round. They can no longer take points in the overall table. Bayer 04 slipped out on the top eight, so direct participation in the final event for the German Club Championship is no longer possible, with Bayer 04 having to contest the play-offs.
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