Bayer Leverkusen Visits Munich Aiming to Spoil the City’s Celebrations
Bayern Munich will host Bayer Leverkusen, the reigning Bundesliga champions, at the Allianz Arena on Saturday for the fifth round of the Bundesliga.
This matchup takes place amidst the famous “Oktoberfest” celebrations, an annual festival held in Munich lasting 16 days.
Playing at Bayern’s stadium is challenging at any time of year. The Bavarian giants have played 1,006 Bundesliga matches at home, winning about 75% of them, with an average of 2.7 goals per game.
However, matches during “Oktoberfest” seem even tougher for opponents, as the festival holds many memorable moments for Bayern. In 2023, they defeated Bochum 7-0, recording their biggest home league victory.
Thirty years earlier, in 1983, they celebrated their largest European win, a 10-0 rout over Anorthosis Famagusta from Cyprus.
On September 22, 2015, during Oktoberfest celebrations, Polish striker Robert Lewandowski made history by scoring five goals in just nine minutes after coming on as a substitute against Wolfsburg.
Leverkusen, on the other hand, has visited Munich four times during Oktoberfest without a single victory, recording three losses and one draw with a combined scoreline of 11-3.
Their most recent visit during the festivities came in 2022, when they suffered a heavy 0-4 defeat. However, the reigning champions are hoping to break that trend this time and join the list of teams that have managed to defeat Bayern on their stadium during Oktoberfest, intending to hand them their first loss of the season.
Here are some key indicators about both teams that might help you predict the winner:
• FC Bayern, top of the league, will play host to second-place Bayer 04 Leverkusen. While sitting in first place, Bayern haven’t lost any of their last 16 Bundesliga games against a club in second (W11, D5), most recently suffering defeat in such a fixture in January 2015 at VfL Wolfsburg (4-1).
• FC Bayern will play a reigning Bundesliga champion for the first time since matchday 32 of 2012/13 (1-1 at Borussia Dortmund) – they haven’t won any of their last four such fixtures (all against Dortmund).
• With four wins from four games and a goal difference of +13 (16-3), FC Bayern have enjoyed the joint best start to a season in Bundesliga history.
• Bayer 04 Leverkusen have conceded nine goals across the opening four matchdays, their worst record at this stage since 2014/15 (also 9).
• Since a 3-0 defeat in Bochum in May 2023, Bayer 04 Leverkusen are unbeaten in 19 Bundesliga away games (W16, D3) – only FC Bayern have ever put together a longer undefeated streak on the road in the division’s history (33 games from 2012 to 2014).
• Bayern’s Harry Kane has had a hand in a league-high nine goals in the Bundesliga this season (5 goals, 4 assists), closely followed by teammate Michael Olise and Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz (5 goal involvements each). Since detailed data collection began in 2004/05, only Robert Lewandowski in 2020/21 has directly contributed to more goals across the opening four matchdays of a Bundesliga season (10).
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