Women's team review 2024

Rebuild leads to his­toric Hinrunde

The Werkself were two points short of a club points record in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga in May. From the summer the team went into the first half of the season under new coach Roberto Pätzold and with 26 points are now just seven points behind the aforementioned record tally. The Bayer 04 Women's team review 2024.

JanuarY: Unlucky end to Hinrunde

After finishing sixth last season, the Leverkusen women beat Anderlecht 3-2 in a friendly as part of the winter preparations. The Hinrunde ended three weeks later with the team in seventh place after the match away to Werder Bremen. The Werkself were 1-0 up on 76 minutes but the hosts turned the game round late on – and went above the Black and Reds in the table for the time being.

Emilie Bragstad jubelt

February: central defenders on target

The Rückrunde began in February with a home game against Pokal winners VfL Wolfsburg. Central defender Emilie Bragstad secured a successful start to the second half of the season for the team under head coach Robert de Pauw with her equaliser at 1-1. Another central defender was on target a week later: The Bayer 04 Women beat newly promoted FC Nürnberg 2-1 away with goals from Melissa Friedrich and Bragstad again. They missed out on moving up to fifth place after a 2-1 defeat against TSG Hoffenheim.

March: Pokal exit and Derby win

March delivered an emotional roller coaster. First, the Leverkusen Women played at the BayArena for the second time in the club's history since 2009 – and they went out of the DFB Pokal with a 2-1 defeat in the quarter-final tie against SGS Essen. No goals were scored in the away games at SC Freiburg and at  SGS Essen but the Werkself provided an emotional highlight in a home game: A header from Lilla Turanyi and a wonderful long-range shot from Kristin Kögel secured a 2-0 derby win against FC Köln.

Kristin Kögel jubelt im Derby

April: Bender's first Bundesliga goal

Rising midfield star Loreen Bender scored the first Bundesliga goal in her career against her former club. She came on as a substitute 33 minutes into the clash with Eintracht Frankfurt – and opened the scoring three minutes later from a free kick. Striker Nikola Karczewska doubled the lead in added time for a final scoreline of 2-0 against the Champions League side. The de Pauw team were unable to build on that away to RB Leipzig six days later: A late strike in the 1-0 defeat kept the newly promoted team up.

May: no points record – season ends in sixth place

In contrast to the year before, the Bayer 04 Women did not gate crash the FC Bayern party. As Karczewska only netted a consolation goal after being 2-0 down, Bayern Munich sealed the title win at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium on Matchday 20. The Werkself beat the already relegated MSV Duisburg 3-1 a week later for points 29 to 31. There was a chance of breaking the 33 points record from the 2020/21 season at the end of the campaign but in the last game under coach de Pauw Werder Bremen won 3-2 in Leverkusen. The Werkself ended the 2023/24 season in sixth place.

Saisonabschluss gegen Bremen

June: Roberto Pätzold starts at Bayer 04

Roberto Pätzold was appointed successor to de Pauw as head coach on 1 June. The 44-year-old sports scientist was previously a coach with the DFB and at FC Ingolstadt in the men's second division. Pätzold started the preseason with his new team at the Kurtekotten Performance Centre on 17 June.

July: Six new signings, Training camp in Katowice

A total of six new players strengthened the Werkself squad in the summer. Caroline Kehrer (from SC Braga/Portugal), Cornelia Kramer (HB Køge/Denmark), Katharina Piljic (SGS Essen), Juliette Vidal (RSC Anderlecht/Belgium), Vanessa Haim (FC Nürnberg) and Shen Menglu (Celtic/Scotland) all travelled to the summer training camp in Katowice in Poland. Pätzold worked on fine-tuning his team for the new season with mostly two training sessions a day. In addition to a friendly against top-flight Polish side Czarni Sosnowiec, there was plenty of time for the newly formed squad to get to know each other away from the pitch.

Roberto Pätzold und sein neues Team

August: Five friendly wins on the bounce – disputed win in Freiburg

The Leverkusen Women played seven friendlies before the season opener in Freiburg with the last five all ending in wins. The team led by new captain  Friederike Repohl continued the run on Matchday 1. But there was then a long dispute about the late winner scored by Kögel from the penalty spot in the 3-2 win. SC Freiburg registered a protest about a breach of rules by the referee who let Kögel retake her penalty. The final verdict was announced nearly four months later. The game will now be replayed on Sunday, 26 January 2025, in Freiburg at noon CET.

September: success in the Pokal, undefeated in the league

The Pätzold team overcame the opening hurdle in the second round of the DFB Pokal with a comfortable 2-0 win away to Regional League side Karlsruher SC. That was followed by another decent result in the league: In the first home game of the season Bayer 04 led 2-0 against Champions League qualifiers Eintracht Frankfurt and deservedly held onto a point after the increasingly strong visitors levelled at 2-2. Matchdays 3 and 4 were even better with wins away to Essen (2-0) and at home to Hoffenheim (2-1).

Jubel in Essen

October: big match at the Weserstadion and impressive display against Bayern

The Werkself wobbled against newly promoted FC Carl Zeiss Jena but a first goal from Piljic secured the next win for the Black and Reds in a 1-0 victory. A week later, the Bayer 04 Women played in front of 22,721 spectators at the Weserstadion in Bremen – and in an evenly-balanced encounter conceded an equaliser in added time for the final score of 1-1. After seven games undefeated, the champions of Germany Bayern Munich ended the opening run in the top match at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. Despite leading twice and a battling performance from the Leverkusen Women, Bayern Munich scored late-on to make it 3-2.

Cornelia Kramer jubelt

November: Derby win starts new run

The unlucky defeat was followed by a perfect November: A brace from striker Cornelia Kramer secured a 2-1 derby win at FC Köln and the Werkself beat newly promoted FFC Turbine Potsdam 3-0. Away to RB Leipzig, who won their last nine home games, Kristin Kögel netted a late winner at 1-0 to secure three points for her team.The Leverkusen Women were again at home to Potsdam in the DFB Pokal Round of 16 just twelve days after the league fixture. This time Sofie Zdebel scored the only goal of the game in the 1-0 win that secured a place in the quarter-finals. Werder Bremen are the opponents at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium in the middle of February.

Sofie Zdebel jubelt

December: Historic win against Wolfsburg – Five clean sheets in succession

The Black and Reds went into the winter break with two more highly focused performances. The sixth goal of the season from Kramer secured victory in the top match against Wolfsburg for the first time in 14 years (1-0) and the Leverkusen Women went above VfL for one night. Despite the win at Freiburg being struck out, it was clear at this point that the Hinrunde would be the most successful in the club's history with 23 points. In the return match against SC Freiburg, the Bayer 04 Women ended the year where they finished off in the first half of the season. Zdebel as well as talented striker Delice Boboy scored their first Bundesliga goals in the 2-0 win. The defence led by keeper Repohl kept a clean sheet for the fifth time. The successful year ended with a contract extension for Bender who at the start of the month ahead of the Wolfsburg game was awarded the gold   Fritz Walter Medal as the best talent amongst U19 Women players. Shortly after that, the offensive players penned a new deal under the Cross to 2027.