Bayern Munich will look to continue their quest for a tenth Bundesliga title in a row when they travel to the North Rhine-Westphalia to take on Bayer Leverkusen in a top of the table clash on Sunday.
Venue: BayArena (Leverkusen)
Key Statistics
Bayer Leverkusen have won their last five competitive games.
Bayer have scored in every home league game since February (W6, D2, L3).
This season they have scored 20 goals and conceded seven.
Florian Wirtz has scored, assisted or both in all eight of his competitive club appearances this season.
Bayern Munich have scored 27 goals and conceded eight in the Bundesliga this season.
They have not lost two games in a row since 2019.
Robert Lewandowski will move up to joint-second with Naldo on the Bundesliga’s list of all-time foreign appearance-makers with 358 if he plays on Sunday.
Head to head
In 33 head-to-head encounters between both teams, Bayern Munich holds the clear advantage. The Bavarians have won 21 games while Leverkusen have six wins with six matches ending in a draw.
Latest Performances
Bayer Leverkusen: W-W-W-W-W
Bayern Munich: L-W-W-W-W
Bayer Leverkusen
Bayer Leverkusen have taken the Bundesliga by storm this season and will enter matchday eight sitting in second place, behind Bayern only on goal difference.
Gerardo Seoane has his side playing entertaining attacking football and will be keen to show the leaders that they mean business and are ready for a shot at the title.
Die Werkself are on a five game-winning run in all competitions and enter this fixture with just one loss in eleven games (W9, D1). They have scored eight goals in their last two games and have conceded more than a goal only once in their last 17 games.
Such a record will have them confident of picking up a win against a Bayern Munich side who are always a threat.
Apart from the added motivation of going top of the table, Seoane’s side will also be looking to get over a psychological barrier here and get their first win over the visitors in five games.
Defender Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Austrian midfielder Julian Baumgartlinger, and centre-back Edmond Tapsoba will be unavailable for this tie. There are also doubts over the availability of left-back Mitchell Baker, Greek centre-back Panagiotis Retsos and midfielder Robert Andrich.
Possible Bayer Leverkusen starting line-ups
Lukas Hradecky, Jeremie Frimpong, Odilon Kossounou, Jonathan Tah, Piero Hincapie, Charles Aranguiz, Kerem Demirbay, Karim Bellarabi, Florian Wirtz, Moussa Diaby, Patrik Schick.
Bayern Munich
After falling to a shock 2-1 home defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in their last Bundesliga game, the defending champions will look to get back to winning ways against early-season title contenders Leverkusen.
The Bavarians remain favourites for this year’s title and have begun this season in impressive form, winning five of their seven opening games and scoring 24 times.
Their loss to Frankfurt would have left a bad taste in their mouth, but would also help show them that they are not invincible. A win here would be a priority for them in their quest to retain the top spot.
They have a good record against Leverkusen, having won their last four games against their hosts. But this Leverkusen side poses a serious threat upfront and will test Julian Nagelsmann’s defence that is missing some key players.
Goalkeeper Sven Ulreich is one of the missing players for Nagelsmann, while there are doubts over the availability of France international Kingsley Coman and Corentin Tolisso. French defender Benjamin Pavard is suspended while Lucas Hernandez might not feature due to his ongoing troubles with Spanish authorities.
Possible Bayern Munich starting line-ups
Manuel Neuer, Josip Stanisic, Dayot Upamecano, Niklas Sule, Alphonso Davies, Joshua Kimmich, Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry, Thomas Muller, Leroy Sane, Robert Lewandowski.
Prediction
Bayern have the psychological advantage in this tie and looks set to win this game. But Leverkusen are a strong side and have the momentum going into this tie, making predicting this game a difficult task.
