# 2018–19 Bayer 04 Leverkusen season

The 2018–19 Bayer 04 Leverkusen season was the 115th season in the football club's history and 40th consecutive and overall season in the top flight of German football, the Bundesliga, having been promoted from the 2. Bundesliga Nord in 1979. In addition to the domestic league, Bayer Leverkusen also participated in this season's editions of the domestic cup, the DFB-Pokal, and the second-tier continental cup, the UEFA Europa League. This was the 61st season for Leverkusen in the BayArena, located in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The season covers a period from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019.
The season was the first since 2005-06 without Stefan Kießling, who retired after the 2017-18 season.

## Players
### Squad information

    As of 11 February 2019
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | FIN | Lukáš Hrádecký |
| 3 | DF | GRE | Panagiotis Retsos |
| 4 | DF | GER | Jonathan Tah |
| 5 | MF | GER | Sven Bender |
| 6 | DF | AUT | Aleksandar Dragović |
| 7 | FW | BRA | Paulinho |
| 8 | MF | GER | Lars Bender (captain) |
| 9 | FW | JAM | Leon Bailey |
| 10 | FW | GER | Julian Brandt |
| 11 | FW | SWE | Isaac Kiese Thelin (on loan from Anderlecht) |
| 13 | FW | ARG | Lucas Alario |
| 15 | MF | AUT | Julian Baumgartlinger (3rd captain) |
| 16 | DF | CRO | Tin Jedvaj |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 17 | FW | FIN | Joel Pohjanpalo |
| 18 | DF | BRA | Wendell |
| 20 | MF | CHI | Charles Aránguiz |
| 21 | MF | GER | Dominik Kohr |
| 23 | DF | GER | Mitchell Weiser |
| 24 | GK | GER | Thorsten Kirschbaum |
| 28 | GK | AUT | Ramazan Özcan |
| 29 | MF | GER | Kai Havertz |
| 30 | MF | GER | Sam Schreck |
| 31 | FW | GER | Kevin Volland (vice-captain) |
| 33 | DF | GER | Jan Boller |
| 35 | MF | POL | Adrian Stanilewicz |
| 38 | MF | GER | Karim Bellarabi |

### Players out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | GK | GER | Niklas Lomb (at SV Sandhausen until 30 June 2019) |
| — | GK | POL | Tomasz Kucz (at Dunajská Streda until 30 June 2019) |

### Transfers
#### In

| No. | Pos | Player | From | Type | Window | Ends | Fee |
| 1 | GK | Lukáš Hrádecký | Eintracht Frankfurt | Transfer | Summer | 2023 | Free |
| 6 | DF | Aleksandar Dragović | Leicester City | Loan return | Summer | 2021 | Free |
| 7 | FW | Paulinho | Vasco da Gama | Transfer | Summer | 2020 | €18,500,000 |
| 23 | DF | Mitchell Weiser | Hertha BSC | Transfer | Summer | 2023 | €12,000,000 |
| 24 | GK | Thorsten Kirschbaum | 1. FC Nürnberg | Transfer | Summer | 2019 | Free |
| 30 | FW | Sam Schreck | Bayer Leverkusen U19 | Promoted to first team | Summer | 2021 | Free |
| 32 | FW | Jakub Bednarczyk | Bayer Leverkusen U19 | Promoted to first team | Summer | 2019 | Free |
| 35 | FW | Chinedu Ekene | Bayer Leverkusen U19 | Promoted to first team | Summer | 2019 | Free |
| 40 | GK | Tomasz Kucz | Bayer Leverkusen U19 | Promoted to first team | Summer | 2019 | Free |
| — | FW | Dennis Mbay | Bayer Leverkusen U19 | Promoted to first team | Summer | 2019 | Free |

#### Out

| No. | Pos | Player | To | Type | Window | Fee |
| 1 | GK | Bernd Leno | Arsenal | Transfer | Summer | €25,000,000 |
| 11 | FW | Stefan Kießling | Retired | Released | Summer | Free |
| 22 | MF | Vladlen Yurchenko | | Released | Summer | Free |
| 36 | GK | Niklas Lomb | SV Sandhausen | Loan | Summer | Free |
| 37 | MF | Marlon Frey | | Released | Summer | Free |

## Friendly matches

Win  Draw  Loss

## Competitions

Win  Draw  Loss

### Overview

| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
| Bundesliga | 25 August 2018 | 18 May 2019 | Matchday 1 | | 34 | 18 | 4 | 12 | 69 | 52 | +17 | 052.94 |
| DFB-Pokal | 18 August 2018 | 5 February 2019 | First round | Round of 16 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 | +5 | 066.67 |
| Europa League | 20 September 2018 | 21 February 2019 | Group stage | Round of 32 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 17 | 10 | +7 | 050.00 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 45 | 24 | 7 | 14 | 93 | 64 | +29 | 053.33 |
Last updated: 25 May 2019 Source: Competitions

### Bundesliga
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 2 | Borussia Dortmund | 34 | 23 | 7 | 4 | 81 | 44 | +37 | 76 | Qualification for the Champions League group stage |
| 3 | RB Leipzig | 34 | 19 | 9 | 6 | 63 | 29 | +34 | 66 | Qualification for the Champions League group stage |
| 4 | Bayer Leverkusen | 34 | 18 | 4 | 12 | 69 | 52 | +17 | 58 | Qualification for the Champions League group stage |
| 5 | Borussia Mönchengladbach | 34 | 16 | 7 | 11 | 55 | 42 | +13 | 55 | Qualification for the Europa League group stage |
| 6 | VfL Wolfsburg | 34 | 16 | 7 | 11 | 62 | 50 | +12 | 55 | Qualification for the Europa League group stage |
* ↑ Since the winners of the 2018–19 DFB-Pokal, Bayern Munich, qualified for the Champions League based on league position, the Europa League group stage spot was passed to the sixth-placed team, and the Europa League second qualifying round spot was passed to the seventh-placed team.

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Last updated: 25 May 2019. Source: Bundesliga

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 |
| Ground | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A |
| Result | L | L | L | W | W | L | D | D | W | L | L | W | D | W | L | W | W | L | W | W | W | W | L | W | L | L | L | L | W | W | W | W | D | W |
| Position | 16 | 16 | 18 | 15 | 11 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 |

#### Matches
### UEFA Europa League
#### Group stage

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Bayer Leverkusen | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 9 | +7 | 13 | Advance to knockout phase |
| 2 | Zürich | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 6 | +1 | 10 | Advance to knockout phase |
| 3 | AEK Larnaca | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 12 | −6 | 5 | |
| 4 | Ludogorets Razgrad | 6 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 7 | −2 | 4 | |

#### Knockout phase
##### Round of 32
## Statistics
### Appearances and goals

| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | Bundesliga | Bundesliga | DFB-Pokal | DFB-Pokal | Europa League | Europa League |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Goalkeepers ||||||||||||
| 1 | GK | FIN | Lukáš Hrádecký | 40 | 0 | 32 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 24 | GK | GER | Thorsten Kirschbaum | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 28 | GK | AUT | Ramazan Özcan | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Defenders ||||||||||||
| 3 | DF | GRE | Panagiotis Retsos | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 4 | DF | GER | Jonathan Tah | 38 | 3 | 33 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 6 | DF | AUT | Aleksandar Dragović | 29 | 2 | 14+5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 7+1 | 0 |
| 16 | DF | CRO | Tin Jedvaj | 21 | 2 | 13+3 | 0 | 1+1 | 1 | 2+1 | 1 |
| 18 | DF | BRA | Wendell | 39 | 2 | 25+3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| 23 | DF | GER | Mitchell Weiser | 41 | 2 | 22+8 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7+1 | 1 |
| Midfielders ||||||||||||
| 5 | MF | GER | Sven Bender | 32 | 0 | 25+2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 8 | MF | GER | Lars Bender | 27 | 1 | 18+2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3+2 | 0 |
| 15 | MF | AUT | Julian Baumgartlinger | 27 | 0 | 16+5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2+2 | 0 |
| 20 | MF | CHI | Charles Aránguiz | 29 | 3 | 22+2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| 21 | MF | GER | Dominik Kohr | 25 | 2 | 10+8 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| 29 | MF | GER | Kai Havertz | 42 | 20 | 33+1 | 17 | 2 | 0 | 5+1 | 3 |
| 30 | MF | GER | Sam Schreck | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 36 | MF | GER | Adrian Stanilewicz | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
| 38 | MF | GER | Karim Bellarabi | 24 | 9 | 14+5 | 5 | 1+1 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Forwards ||||||||||||
| 7 | FW | BRA | Paulinho | 21 | 1 | 0+15 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 3+1 | 1 |
| 9 | FW | JAM | Leon Bailey | 39 | 5 | 21+8 | 5 | 1+1 | 0 | 6+2 | 0 |
| 10 | FW | GER | Julian Brandt | 43 | 10 | 30+3 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 5+2 | 1 |
| 11 | FW | SWE | Isaac Kiese Thelin | 14 | 1 | 1+5 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 4+2 | 1 |
| 13 | FW | ARG | Lucas Alario | 36 | 14 | 11+16 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 4+3 | 4 |
| 17 | FW | FIN | Joel Pohjanpalo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 | FW | GER | Kevin Volland | 42 | 15 | 32+2 | 14 | 2+1 | 1 | 3+2 | 0 |
| Players transferred out during the season ||||||||||||
| 22 | MF | UKR | Vladlen Yurchenko | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 32 | MF | POL | Jakub Bednarczyk | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 |
Last updated: 18 May 2019 Source: Competitions