The only unbeaten team across all competitions in Europe’s top five leagues will aim to extend their remarkable record on Tuesday.
Unstoppable Bayer Leverkusen welcome VfB Stuttgart to the BayArena in the quarter-finals of the DFB-Pokal, hoping to join Fortuna Dusseldorf and 1. FC Kaiserslautern in the last four.
In the Bundesliga, table-topping Bayer lead second-placed Bayern Munich by two points and sit 12 points clear of third-placed Stuttgart.
Bayer Leverkusen head into Tuesday’s showdown on the back of a 2-0 victory over Darmstadt, courtesy of a brace from ex-Southampton forward Nathan Tella.
Xabi Alonso’s men have now won six of their last seven matches across all competitions, keeping five clean sheets in their previous six.
Bayer kicked off their DFB-Pokal journey with an 8-0 thrashing of Teutonia Ottensen before dispatching Sandhausen (5-2) and Paderborn (3-1) to reach the quarter-finals.
In terms of the entire season, unbeaten Leverkusen have won 25 and drawn four of their 29 encounters, enjoying 14-game, five-game and four-game winning streaks along the way.
Meanwhile, Stuttgart claimed a 3-1 victory over Freiburg on Saturday, racking up 66% possession and 17 shots in a dominant win at the Europa-Park Stadion.
The Reds enter Tuesday’s clash on the back of successive victories, having thrashed RB Leipzig 5-2 in the previous round of Bundesliga fixtures.
In the DFB-Pokal, Stuttgart started their campaign with a 4-0 victory over TSG Balingen before claiming the notable scalps of Union Berlin (1-0) and Borussia Dortmund (2-0).
Trends show that Stuttgart have registered three wins, seven goals and three clean sheets in the DFB-Pokal this season, underlining their dominance.
Head-to-head: The last two Bundesliga meetings between Bayer Leverkusen and VfB Stuttgart ended as 1-1 draws, with the most recent clash coming in December 2023.
That means the Reds have failed to win any of their previous 10 matches against Bayer, recording three draws and seven defeats in that time.
Team news: The hosts are currently without injured trio Victor Boniface (groin), Exequiel Palacios (muscle) and Arthur (tendon).
The visitors also have three injury absentees at the moment, with Serhou Guirassy (muscle), Nikolas Nartey (knee) and Dan-Axel Zagadou (knee) on the sidelines.
Although Stuttgart have exceeded all expectations up to now, they will likely struggle to halt Bayer Leverkusen’s unbeaten run.
Forebet’s algorithm predicts that Bayer Leverkusen will score over 1.5 goals on their way to defeating Stuttgart, maintaining their unbeaten record in 2023-24.