Women Travel to Leverkusen
Union Look to Give Bayer a Headache
On Monday, 15.09.2025, 1. FC Union Berlin's women's team will play their first Google Pixel Frauen-Bundesliga away match against Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Kick off in the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion is at 18:00.
The lie of the land
In their Bundesliga opener, Leverkusen faced the reigning German champions FC Bayern München in the Allianz Arena, in front of a record crowd for German women's football of 57,762 spectators. In a largely even encounter, Bayer 04 uktmately fell to a 2-0 defeat due to a double strike in the closing quarter-hour.
Union, meanwhile, secured their first point in the top flight two days later with their 1-1 draw against 1. FC Nürnberg. Despite dominating the game for long periods, a 90th minute equaliser meant that the points were shared.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen are coming off the back of their best season in women's football. Before Christmas the 'Werkself' kept pace with the top trio, and were third at the winter break – level on points with Eintracht Frankfurt, champions, Bayern München, and one point ahead of Wolfsburg. Bayer could not maintain the pace completely, however, and fell out of the Champions League places, ultimately finishing in fourth.
This season, the team of coach Roberto Pätzold, who has been on the touchline there since summer 2024, are again among the candidates for the top fours. In the transfer market, an exchange with RasenBallsport Leipzig attracted particular attention in the summer. While Leverkusen let the talented 18-year-old Delice Boboy, who scored her first four Bundesliga goals in the second half of the season, move to Saxony, Vanessa Fudalla came the other way. The 23-year-old scored ten Bundesliga goals for Leipzig in the last two seasons. Furthermore, they managed to sign Carlotta Wamser from Eintracht, who made four appearances for Germany in the last European Championship. They did, however, also lose an important player in Janou Levels to VfL Wolfsburg.
The signing of Fudalla should offer them more in front of goal. With only 38, Leverkusen had only the fifth-best attack in the league last season, 30 goals fewer than Eintracht. Top scorer was Cornelia Kramer with twelve goals; no other player in the squad scored more than five.
The two sides met during the winter training camp last January. In a game played over three 40 minute thirds, Union went down to a narrow 2-1 defeat. Nele Bauereisen equalised with her first goal for Union, but Leverkusen got a winner six minutes before the end.
Leonie Köster, Hannah Eurlings und Fatma Şakar will all be unavailable for selection on Monday evening
"We are looking forward to this big challenge," said Union's head coach, Ailien Poese ahead of the first away match in Union's Bundesliga history. "We consider Leverkusen to be one of the top teams in the league, characterised by fast, direct play and disciplined defence. We want to work passionately and intensively in defence and make sure that we act clearly and quickly when we win the ball or gain possession."
Tickets for the game at the Ulrich-Haberland-Stadion are available in the Bayer Leverkusen ticket shop.
The match will be broadcast live on Sport1, Magenta Sport, and DAZN. In addition, Union will provide information about the game's events in the club's own live ticker.
