Before returning to competitive matches with the rearranged game at SC Freiburg on Sunday, 26 January (12.00 CET, Dreisamstadion), the Leverkusen Women are spending part of their winter break on the Iberian Peninsula. In addition to eight training sessions, there are two friendlies against Villarreal and second division Union Berlin with the squad returning to Leverkusen on Sunday.
The Werkself group set off from the BayArena by coach to Düsseldorf airport shortly after four in the morning. The flight to Alicante left at seven in the morning. Late in the morning, the team completed a coach transfer to the Oliva Nova Beach & Golf Hotel, their base for the next seven nights. The hotel has catered for many professional football teams for decades and has plenty of sporting options in addition to four grass pitches right next to the beach on the Costa del Azahar.
From the Bundesliga squad, Loreen Bender (recovery after tonsillitis operation), Juliette Vidal (broken nose in the friendly against Anderlecht), Vanessa Haim (back problems) and the long-term absentee Sofia Cava Marin (torn cruciate) did not travel to Spain. Goalkeeper Louisa Remien, Paula Schwartze, Jana Lindner and Kirkellis Lillemets (all from the Bayer 04 U20 team) have joined the squad. The newly signed midfielder Ruby Grant will join her new teammates on Monday afternoon.
After lunch and a short rest the Leverkusen Women made their way to the training ground in the afternoon a few minutes walk from the hotel. Pätzold let his team work on the ball for starters. That included a range of passing drills as well as possession and positional play with the session ending in a nine vs nine game.
The first friendly for the Bayer 04 Women in Oliva is on Tuesday, 14 January (12.00 CET) against Villarreal. A day before departure, the team fourth in the Bundesliga play second division Union Berlin, who have their training camp at the same base, on Saturday, 18 January (14.00 CET) with a 3×40 minutes match. The group fly back to Germany on Sunday morning. The complete winter timetable is HERE.
Bayer 04 host Borussia Mönchengladbach at the BayArena on matchday 12 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season. The schedule for the game remains to be confirmed. The latest information on ticket sales.
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Bayer 04 host Eintracht Frankfurt at the BayArena on matchday 14 of the 2026/27 Bundesliga season. The schedule for the game remains to be confirmed. The latest information on ticket sales.
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Werkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04 Women's 0-1 loss at Bayern Munich in the round of 16 of the women's DFB-Pokal 2026/27
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“As far as mentality and determination are concerned, we have nothing to reproach ourselves for,” Robert Andrich said up after the first home defeat for the Werkself this term. In terms of their play, too, the Black and Reds put in a respectable performance for long stretches of this intense and physical match, outperforming VfB Stuttgart in most areas. It was only in terms of efficiency in front of goal that the Swabians had the edge over the Werkself. Head coach Carles Martínez wants to learn from this so that, in future, they can “win this sort of match too”. The Werkself review.
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career working as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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