The top two in the Bundesliga will do battle at the BayArena on Saturday afternoon, as high-flying Bayer Leverkusen host title rivals Bayern Munich.
Bayern have won each of the previous 11 Bundesliga titles, while Leverkusen have never managed to get their hands of the trophy. However, that could change this year.
With 14 matches remaining, Thomas Tuchel’s men find themselves two points behind Xabi Alonso’s boys, who remain unbeaten across all competitions this season.
Bayer Leverkusen booked their place in the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal with a 3-2 victory over VfB Stuttgart on Tuesday, with Jonathan Tah scoring a 90th-minute winner.
Alonso’s side have now won seven of their last eight matches across all competitions, scoring 21 goals (2.6 goals per game) while keeping five clean sheets.
In the Bundesliga, unbeaten Leverkusen have registered 16 wins and four draws, scoring 52 goals (2.6 goals per game) while conceding just 14.
Across all competitions, Bayer have avoided defeat in each of their 30 outings this season, securing 26 wins and four draws to remain the only unbeaten team in Europe’s top five leagues.
Meanwhile, Bayern Munich claimed a 3-1 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach last time out, with Harry Kane continuing his remarkable scoring streak.
Kane has now bagged 28 goals in 27 appearances for the perennial German champions, including a hugely impressive 24 goals in 20 Bundesliga outings.
Like Leverkusen, Bayern have won seven of their last eight matches across all competitions, although they suffered a 1-0 defeat to Werder Bremen last month.
Tuchel’s men have also lost two of their previous seven away outings, with a shock DFB-Pokal defeat to Saarbruecken preceding a 5-1 thrashing at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Head-to-head: In the reverse fixture back in September, Leverkusen came from behind on two occasions to hold Bayern to a 2-2 draw at the Allianz Arena.
The H2H stats show that Leverkusen have taken four points from their last two matches against Bayern, although the Bavarians picked up five wins in six meetings between 2020 and 2022.
Team news: Arthur, Victor Boniface and Exequiel Palacios are injured for the hosts, while Odilon Kossounou is away at the Africa Cup of Nations with finalists Ivory Coast.
The visitors are missing a number of key players, including Kingsley Coman, Serge Gnabry and Konrad Laimer, as well as youngsters Gabriel Marusic, Tarek Buchmann and Noel Aseko-Nkili.
If recent trends are anything to go by, Saturday’s showdown will be an eventful clash with multiple goals at both ends of the pitch.
Forebet’s algorithm predicts that Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich will share over 4.5 goals, with the defending champions ending the hosts’ unbeaten run.