Die Welt declares: "Both teams set out to get on the front foot from the start and provided top entertainment."
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung opts for the headline 'A crazy Sunday afternoon' and reports: "Matches like these, that filled matchday 17 in the Bundesliga with goalmouth action galore, brings fans to the stadiums. With more clinical finishing, the game could have ended with a 6-6 scoreline – with the Leverkusen having a slight advantage. The opening goal scored by the Werkself, one of the many special moments in this memorable encounter, was described as follows: "After a wonderful cross from Lars Bender, Julian Brandt produced a perfect volley to score. The beautiful sound of a footballer striking the ball cleanly and with power and it hitting the back of the net was clearly to be heard in a stadium with little atmosphere."
The Kölner Stadt Anzeiger reports: "Heiko Herrlich left the HDI Arena with a slightly hoarse voice. The Bayer 04 Leverkusen coach and 32,800 spectators witnessed a memorable match in Hanover. 90 exciting, and partly crazy, minutes between (Hannover) 96 and the Werkself ended all square at 4-4. 'A result like that is a cross to bear for us as coaches because, of course, we like to see clean sheets,' said Herrlich. 'If I was to analyse everything in detail with the substitutions and the errors then we'd be here till the morning'.",
The headline in the Kölnische Rundschau: 'Eight goal spectacular'
The summary in the Express: "Incredible, eight goals in a fantastically entertaining Sunday match."
The Bild Zeitung reads, as befits the season: 'Festive eight goal party' and sums up: "A gift of a game! Seven days before 24 December, Hannover and Leverkusen gifted all followers of football eight goals and a wonderful match."
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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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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Having previously recorded six consecutive home wins across all competitions, Bayer 04 suffered their first home defeat of 2026/27 as they went down 4-2 to VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Matchday 8. The visitors capitalised on their first two chances to score, with Ermedin Demirovic and Jamie Leweling finding the net in the first half. Although Patrik Schick got a goal back in the first half, Bilal El Khannouss and Demirovic again added further goals for Stuttgart. Bayer 04 didn’t give up, but Ibrahim Maza’s goal proved little more than a consolation.
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Fans at the BayArena got to enjoy a spectacle on Wednesday as the Werkself came from behind to beat Nürnberg 5-2 in the DFB Pokal. Now with the sixth home game of the season, can Bayer 04 maintain their perfect record in Leverkusen as VfB Stuttgart come to town in the Bundesliga on Saturday (15:30 CET)? The visitors have had issues domestically this term, sitting in 15th place, although they have had much better results in the UEFA Champions League. Here’s all you need to know ahead of the Matchday 8 encounter…
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The Bayern Munich women’s football team are unbeaten in all domestic competitions in the last 62 matches. On Sunday (15:00 CET), the Bayer 04 women’s team will make their next attempt to end the holders unbeaten run in the DFB Pokal Round of 16 tie. For coach Roberto Pätzold, there are a number of factors that give the Werkself cause for optimism despite the high-calibre opposition.
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