Martinez hails Leverkusen’s ‘commitment and sacrifice’

Syndicated reporting provided by Stats Perform and reviewed by the SoccerNews editorial team.

Carles Martinez lauded the “commitment and sacrifice” Bayer Leverkusen showed to earn him his first Bundesliga win in charge against Union Berlin.

Leverkusen made a fast start against Union and went on to record a thumping 4-0 victory to get off the mark in the top flight this term.

Equi Fernandez scored after just 41 seconds, with Facundo Medina, Patrik Schick and Ibrahim Maza adding the rest of the goals in a dominant display.

It also marks the first time they have won their opening Bundesliga home match of a season in three years, having beaten RB Leipzig 3-2 in their title-winning 2023-24 campaign.

While Leverkusen beat Wehen Wiesbaden 4-0 in their first match under Martinez in the DFB-Pokal, they suffered a shock 3-2 defeat to newly promoted Elversberg in their Bundesliga opener.

Enjoy your weekend – we are! pic.twitter.com/4i8IweWD0b

— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) September 5, 2026

And Martinez was thrilled with the attitude his team showed to bounce back from that result.

“We started very strongly,” said Martinez at his post-match press conference.

“We showed the mentality we want to have this season. I’m so happy with our performance.

“I’m genuinely pleased with the squad and for the effort we put in – I value the commitment and sacrifice shown by this team.

“I don’t like to talk about individuals too much, but when we decided to sign [Medina], I knew we were getting more of a role or mentality than just a player, and I simply told him to be himself and compete, which he did very well.”

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