“Despite losing, we were a worthy opponent for the majority of the game, made life very tough for Bayern and didn’t look overawed by the big crowd. For large parts of the game we did exactly what we wanted to do,” said Roberto Pätzold looking back on the 2-0 loss to champions Bayern Munich in front of over 57,000 spectators. “We can be proud of how evenly we contested the match. We were ultimately undone by not taking our chances and sort of running out of steam towards the end.”
The 46-year-old coach added that he has a clear expectation of his team when it comes to facing ambitious promoted side Union: “We want to be dominant in our first outing at home, and obviously not end up empty-handed this time. If we manage to play the way we did against Bayern for 90 minutes, any team will struggle against us.”
However, Bayer 04’s opponents to close out Matchday 2 are “not a normal promoted team”. Union have enjoyed a rapid rise, with back-to-back promotions and winning the Bundesliga 2 title last season. “They’ve strengthened with a lot of quality from the Bundesliga. We expect them to come here full of confidence,” Pätzold explained of the Berliners, who invested heavily in their squad with the signings like Sophie Weidauer from Werder Bremen and Eintracht Frankfurt duo Tanja Pawollek and Anna Aehling. Union drew their Bundesliga debut 1-1 against Nürnberg in front of a crowd of 11,000 at the Stadion An der Alten Försterei.
Union are one of three promoted clubs this season, joining Hamburg and the aforementioned Nürnberg in the newly expanded 14-team Bundesliga. All three come with huge support and play their home games in their main bigger stadium, with Pätzold now expecting a “more evenly balanced league”. He’s also pleased that Berlin now has a top-flight team, given “the capital has long been missing from the women’s football map in Germany”.
Leverkusen remain without Selina Ostermeier, Amy Wrigge (both muscular), Caroline Kehrer (fitness training) and long-term absentee Shen Menglu (cruciate ligament). Whether Loreen Bender will return after missing the Bayern game is up in the air.
From the 2027/28 season, the Women’s Bundesliga will be organised by an independent league association. Following the unanimous decision taken at the DFB Bundestag (national conference) on Friday afternoon, the league’s separation from the DFB is now official.
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Following the Bundesliga clash against RB Leipzig (Sunday, 20 September, 15:30 CEST), some of the Werkself first team players will be heading off for the first international break of the season. Here is an overview of the Bayer 04 players called up for their national teams and all the details of their upcoming matches.
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A special visit to the BayArena: 222 members from volunteer fire brigades in Leverkusen, the Rheinisch-Bergisch district and the Oberbergisch district watched the Werkself’s 2–0 home win over Slovenian champions NK Celje live in the stadium. Bayer 04 had invited them to the 2026/27 Europa League opener as a thank-you for their tremendous dedication. They watched the match together in Block F4.
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The Werkself were feeling quite satisfied following their 2–0 home win in their opening match of the 2026/27 UEFA Europa League, particularly with the result. At the same time, players and coaches agreed that, in terms of their performance, there was “still room for improvement”, as Robert Andrich put it. For his part, Moussa Diaby emphasised the importance of the victory with which the team had kicked off the campaign, and spoke personally about how good it felt to have started in front of the “wonderful” Bayer 04 fans this Tuesday evening for the first time since his return. The Werkself review of the Europa League opener.
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