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“We’re excited to be back in cup action,” said Alonso at Monday’s press conference. “It’s a nice competition, both for big and smaller clubs. Every team has to approach every game as if it were a final. That makes it all more interesting and exciting.”
The Werkself are very much aware that the DFB Pokal can throw up some surprises, as they discovered in Elversberg back in 2022/23. Back then, the newly promoted 3. Liga side claimed a 4-3 win to dump out Leverkusen in the first round. “Obviously there are players from both sides who were there and will be involved again tomorrow, but those are and will remain just memories. They’ve made great progress since then, but so have we,” the Spaniard stated.
Alonso, therefore, preferred to only look ahead to this next encounter with the Saarland club, who are set to bring 1,900 supporters with them to Leverkusen. “They have great qualities. We saw that again in impressive fashion against Hamburg at the weekend [4-2 win]. But when we play our game, we’ll win. We need to be mentally ready and disciplined.”
The boss also confirmed that Jeanuel Belocian will miss the game due to an ankle injury, as well as long-term absentee Amine Adli.
There are still tickets available for the game in the Bayer 04 ticket shop.
Monday evening also sees this year’s Ballon d'Or award ceremony in Paris. Bayer 04 are represented in three categories, with the team up for Men’s Club of the Year, Alonso in the Men’s Team Coach and the trio of Alejandro Grimaldo, Florian Wirtz and Granit Xhaka up for the Men’s Ballon d’Or.
When asked about the awards, Alonso said: “We’re very proud. The nominations are a great honour. And to have them in three categories. It was a super season, almost a dream season. So, the nominations are absolutely deserved.”
Just in time for the start of the school year, everyone was hard at work again at NaturGut Ophoven. For the 21st time, Bayer 04 have supported the annual ‘BioBrotbox’ campaign, which puts together a healthy breakfast for first-year primary school pupils in Leverkusen – and not only contributed 1,904 muesli bars but also plenty of enthusiasm too: Together with the U19 players Burak Kir and Clinton Wilson, Emily Wallrabenstein and Paulina Platner from the Women’s Bundesliga team helped with the packing. The latter was clearly delighted “that Bayer 04 are helping out with regional projects like this and showing their commitment to the local community”.
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A group of about 50 members of the Bayer 04 Football Academy São Paulo visited Leverkusen over the past few days, accompanied by Bayer 04 club legend Paulo Sergio and Luiz Felipe (managing director of academy in São Paulo) for a week full of football, encounters and very special insights. In addition to the Bundesliga away game in Elversberg and the home game against Union Berlin, the visit also featured a joint training session with the Bayer 04 Football Academy in Leverkusen and a tour of the Bayer AG facilities. The guests also gained special insights into the club and the world of Bayer 04.
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The men's clothing retailer LERROS will remain the official fashion and premium partner of Bayer 04 for the current season. As in the past, LERROS will provide the club's men's team, coaching staff and management with high-quality clothing for international trips.
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“Diaby! Diaby! Diaby!” was the cry around the BayArena as the Werkself danced in front of the north stand following their 4-0 win over Union Berlin. Captain Edmond Tapsoba gave his new (and old) teammate a friendly shove forward to take in the acclaim from the fans. The returning Frenchman was typically reserved in thanking the supporters but was clearly emotional about what was happening.
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