The Berliner Morgenpost believes the Werkself were "distracted and careless from the start and their approach provided unexpected help for the neighbours." And the Kölner Stadt Anzeiger was surprised by the Bayer 04 display in the 62nd Bundesliga derby and added: "It was bewildering how readily Heiko Herrlich's team, without Lars Bender (injured) and Kevin Volland (birth of his daughter), fell into all the traps almost voluntarily after a run of ten away games without defeat. Poor passes, pointless dribbling and weak challenges led to losing possession and FC Köln counter-attacks that put the Werkself under constant pressure. The rest was down to individual errors." The Frankfurter Allgemeine reports: "In all aspects of the game – breaking moves down, tackling and challenging, one-on-ones, the will to win– the relegation-threatened big club were superior to their neighbours positioned much higher up the table."
According to the report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, "the favourites from the other side of the Rhine played more or less as coach Heiko Herrlich had feared in public when he provided his preview of the derby, specifically warning against FC Köln's quality. In spite of that, his team demonstrated inexplicable lethargy against their opponents with the highly talented forward line of Kai Havertz, Leon Bailey and Julian Brandt leading the way.".The Rheinische Post adopted a similar view with the reporter focusing on the importance of attitude in football that Heiko Herrlich often talks about and the game was summed up under the headline 'Köln's mentality beats Bayer's quality.'
The Tagesspiegel writes that the Bayer 04 game did liven up with the introduction of Joel Pohjanpalo at the start of the second half, "but, other than good chances for Julian Brandt and Sven Bender, there wasn't much doing. The result was settled by Simon Zoller when he exploited a mistake by Charles Aranguiz to easily make it 2-0." That means Bayer 04 have missed "the chance to improve their position in terms of the four Champions League spots. The team under coach Heiko Herrlich remain in fifth place." (Ruhr Nachrichten)
In addition to the many unusual defects in the Werkself game, the press focus on the red card shown to Lucas Alario (33') – the Kölnische Rundschau identified the violent conduct of the Werkself's Argentinian striker as the "crucial moment in Leverkusen's game," as he "made it more difficult for his team to get back into the game." (Frankfurter Allgemeine) – "The Bayer coach Heiko Herrlich had warned his players before the derby and pointed out they had to keep control of their nerves in spite of the emotion of the game." (Kölnische Rundschau)
The Kicker highlights an unenviable statistic in this respect: "For the fourth time this season after the matches against Leipzig, Dortmund and Schalke. Bayer, with 35 red cards before half-time the holders of an unenviable Bundesliga record, only picked up two points in those four games."
After Jens Nowotny was officially named a Bayer 04 honorary captain last weekend, the long-standing Werkself player is part of the Leverkusen delegation on the trophy tour to New York City next week from 11 to 14 September. In an interview with bayer04.de, the 50-year-old talked about his expectations ahead of the trip to the metropolis on the East Coast of the USA.
Show moreThe German Football League (DFL) has confirmed the dates and kick-off times for matchdays 6 to 12 of the 2024/25 Bundesliga season. Full details of the Bayer 04 fixtures.
Show moreMarkus Rehm, a long jumper at TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen, won the gold medal for the fourth time in succession at the Paralympics on Wednesday.
Show moreThe fixture details for the second round of the DFB Pokal 2024/25 have been confirmed. The home tie for Bayer 04 against second division SV 07 Elversberg is on Tuesday, 29 October with the kick off at 18.00 CET (live on Sky). That was announced by the German Football Association (DFB) on Thursday.
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