Alonso handed debuts to summer signings Alejandro Grimaldo, Jonas Hofmann and Granit Xhaka. Alongside captain Lukas Hradecky, the starting XI also featured Jeremie Frimpong, Edmond Tapsoba, Odilon Kossounou, Exequiel Palacios, Florian Wirtz, Amine Adli and Azmoun in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
The crowd of roughly 1,890 saw the Werkself start strong in their newly released away strip for the coming campaign. The first chance of the game fell to Adli from Xhaka with eight minutes gone, but it was saved. Moments later, Hofmann delivered a teasing cross into the box, but nobody could get on the end of it.
Then Paderborn carved out their first chance, which Hradecky turned behind for a corner. The second division club had the ball in the back of the net from the subsequent set piece, but referee Nico Fuchs signalled offside. A chip from Palacios and a free-kick from Grimaldo midway through the first half came close to putting Leverkusen ahead.
The Werkself finally got the first goal of the day when a through ball from Tapsoba found Azmoun, who finished into the bottom right corner to open Bayer 04’s account for 2023/24. Paderborn responded in the 45th minute, however, with a long-range effort from Florent Muslija.
Paderborn opened the second half with another attempt from distance that went just wide. Although substitute Adam Hlozek almost restored the advantage for Leverkusen, it was the opposition who struck next when a cross from the left found Filip Bilbija.
The Werkself pushed for an equaliser of their own but were unable to find a way through an assured Paderborn defence. Nadiem Amiri almost did it with 10 minutes to go but fired narrowly wide as Bayer 04 slipped to a 2-1 defeat but learned some valuable lessons in the first game of pre-season.
Alonso and his team head off to their training camp in Saalfelden, Austria on Sunday, 23 July. They will then go directly to San Sebastian in Spain on Friday, 28 July for the second friendly against Champions League qualifiers Real Sociedad. The game on Saturday, 29 July kicks off at 18:00 CEST at the Estadio Reale Arena.
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Hradecky (Pentz 45') - Frimpong (Puerta 65'), Tapsoba (Fosu-Mensah 73'), Kossounou (Monamay 45'), Grimaldo (Bäuerle 65') - Palacios (Mbamba 45'), Xhaka (Marsenic 73') - Hofmann (Arthur 45'), Wirtz (Demirbay 45'), Adli (Amiri 45') - Azmoun (Hlozek 45')
Paderborn: Huth - Schuster, Musliu, Hoffmeier - Curda, Klefisch (Hansen 72'), Rohr, Ezekwem - Kinsombi, Bilbija, Muslija
Goals: 1-0 Azmoun (40'), 1-1 Muslija (45'), 1-2 Bilbija (58')
Yellow card: Musliu
Referee: Nico Fuchs
Attendance: 1,890 at the IMS Arena in Velbert
Two keepers, lots of questions: Werkself captain Lukas Hradecky and U19 goalkeeper Jesper Schlich visited the BarmeniaGothaer children’s press conference in partnership with the Bayer 04 Lions Club on Wednesday afternoon. The duo faced interesting and at times unusual questions from around 50 inquisitive young journalists in the press conference room at the BayArena.
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A large number of sporting directors and officials from big clubs across Europe came to the BayArena on Tuesday for the second seminar in the UEFA Sporting Director Programme (SDP) in cooperation with the ECA.
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Full-back Janou Levels will leave Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the end of the season. The 24-year-old has activated her release clause and she will join Bundesliga rivals VfL Wolfsburg. She has signed a three-year contract.
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After returning from Hamburg and a day off on Easter Monday, the Werkself players were back on the training ground at the BayArena on Tuesday morning. Following the session, Amine Adli was very positive in a media interview about the remaining four matches including the forthcoming home game against FC Augsburg (Saturday, 26 April, 15:30 CEST): "We will give our all to end the season as well as we can!"
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