Perhaps one or two may have noticed when driving by. After the BayArena, the town hall, the Bayer Erholunghaus and Schloss Morsbroich started flying the flag for Bayer 04 this week, another Leverkusen landmark is adorned in club colours. This afternoon, a huge black and red banner was lowered down the water tower – as support and motivation for Saturday's game.
There was a unique opportunity for the employees of the Bayer 04 main sponsor: Honorary captain Ulf Kirsten grabbed the DFB Cup of 93 and set off by car in the direction of the Barmenia HQ in Wuppertal. There he gave the members of staff the chance to have a photo taken with the cup. To be precise, the trophy was a lifelike replica. The real trophy is handed to the winners of the tournament each year. The burnished trophy is made of sterling silver and weighs over six kilogrammes and has a material value of €35,000 – the actual value is much higher.
What were current Werkself players doing on 12 June 1993? We asked Karim Bellarabi Kevin Volland and other teammates – about whether they could actually remember anything of that historic night when they were children or had just been born. The answers can be seen on the '19:04 – Die Show', broadcast at 19.04 CET on YouTube and Facebook. This addition will also feature one of our cup winners of 1993 – this time it's Heiko Herrlich. Furthermore, in part three of the 'Road to #B04RLIN, we look back at the Round of 16 tie against VfB Stuttgart, go over to the water tower in Leverkusen and show photos from our fans from previous cup finals there are a few gems amongst them!
He has already grabbed the record as the youngest ever Bundesliga goalscorer this season – if he plays in the DFB Cup final, Florian Wirtz, at the age of 17, two months and one day, would also be the youngest player ever to appear in the DFB Cup final. The current record holder is Julian Draxler (17 years, eight months, one day) who was the youngest player to date in this competition when he played in the 2011 final for Schalke 04. Wirtz' U17 national coach Christian Wück places great store on the Bayer 04 youngster as he revealed on dfb.de: "Here at the DFB, we've told him he's on the right path to become a regular first choice in the Bundesliga or even later on play for the U21s or the national team but that is logically a bit further down the road."
In this hectic cup week, this date definitely not be forgotten: Today (1 July) is the 116th birthday of Bayer 04. It all started with a letter when two members of staff Wilhelm Hausschild and August Kuhlmann asked for support to set up a works gymnastics club in February 1903. On 1 July 1904, the ‘Turn- und Spielverein der Farbenfabriken vorm. Friedrich Bayer & Co. in Leverkusen’, TuS 04 for short, was born. Here's to many more black and red years!
"The players of Bayer 04 and FC Bayern München will not appear in public before or after the game to celebrate with fans or sign autographs," announced the German Football Association (DFB) on its website and appealed to the fans: "We therefore advise and ask all fans not to travel to Berlin." The DFB also urgently advises against gathering in and around the Olympic Stadium and also asked fans to avoid meeting at kiosks, pubs and restaurants in the immediate area of the stadium. Bayer 04 and the City of Leverkusen have already decided there will be no celebrations in Leverkusen due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have to manage without centre-back Edmond Tapsoba in the coming weeks. The Burkina Faso international returned to the Werkself from the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco with a muscle injury.
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The Werkself are away to Hamburg SV at the end of the Hinrunde in the 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign. The match at the newly promoted club is on Tuesday night, 13 January (kick-off: 20:30 CET). Ahead of the first encounter with HSV since 2018, Kasper Hjulmand spoke about the strengths of the opponents, lessons learnt from the home defeat against VfB Stuttgart and provided a squad update.
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In Germany, the temperatures are currently around zero, leaving even professional footballers freezing - but not the Bayer 04 Women. Roberto Pätzold's team have fled the cold to the south and are preparing for the second half of the season at a training camp in the Algarve, almost 2,000 kilometres away from home as the crow flies. The Leverkusen squad landed in Faro on Saturday morning and have already completed the first three training sessions over the weekend.
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It was a disappointing Saturday night. The Werkself lost 4-1 to VfB Stuttgart to start the new year on Bundesliga matchday 16 in 2025/26, a result that left both players and fans disappointed. "We played without any passion," said Alejandro Grimaldo honestly afterwards. Teammate Jarell Quansah was even more self-critical, emphasising: "We were miles off it in the first half. You can't put in a performance like that, especially in front of our own fans and I can only apologise to them, to be honest." Read on for the reaction, facts and stats from the clash with VfB Stuttgart in the Werkself review.
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