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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.”
The Werkself have reached at least the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal in each of the last three years. The Black-and-Reds would like to make it to the final four of the competition again this season, but to do that they'll need to overcome 1. FC Nürnberg in round two, who travel to the BayArena with momentum following a successful league campaign so far. However, Bayer have a 100 percent record at home in all competitions this season - and have also won six of their last seven home matches in the Pokal. The Matchday News.
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Back at home in the second round of the 2026/27 DFB Pokal, Bayer 04 host FC Nürnberg at the BayArena. The match against the current second-placed side in Bundesliga 2 is on Wednesday 28 October at 20:45 CET. Ahead of the game, head coach Carles Martínez spoke, amongst other things, about his anticipation of the clash in front of a home crowd. The Spaniard also commented on a number of personnel matters, including Ibrahim Maza and Montrell Culbreath, plus the visitors’ coach, Miroslav Klose.
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Now in their third season under head coach Miroslav Klose, FC Nürnberg are among the promotion contenders in Bundesliga 2. On Wednesday 28 October (kick-off: 20:45 CET), the team currently second in the table are away to Bayer 04 in the second round of the DFB Pokal. The lowdown on our next opponents.
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Werkself player Ibrahim Maza has been named in the top ten in the ‘Men’s Young Talent of the Year’ category for 2026. The 20-year-old was at the London Palladium on Monday evening for the 2026 Ballon d’Or awards ceremony. Fernando Carro, Bayer 04 CEO, also attended the ceremony. Lamine Yamal of Barcelona was named the winner in the ‘Men’s Young Talent of the Year’ category.
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Bayer 04 will have to manage without forward Moussa Diaby for their upcoming matches. The 27-year-old Frenchman sustained a thigh injury in the 3-0 defeat against TSG Hoffenheim yesterday afternoon, Sunday 25 October. Diaby is expected to be available again after the international break in November.
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