By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Bundesliga log leaders FC Bayern München visit reigning champions Bayer 04 Leverkusen in second place as the 2024-25 title race enters its final months.
Following a 3-0 win for Bayern over SV Werder Bremen and 0-0 draw for Leverkusen at VfL Wolfsburg last weekend, the gap at the top has grown into an eight-point advantage for the Bavarians. The stakes could therefore barely be higher, and after seven successive Bundesliga wins, Vincent Kompany’s men will believe they have what it takes to win at their nearest rivals and open up a commanding 11-point lead.
Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen may have dropped points in Wolfsburg but remain unbeaten in 19 Bundesliga matches.
A 1-0 DFB Cup win in Munich back in December means the Spaniard is yet to lose in five games as a coach against his former club, giving his side additional confidence of ending the Bavarians’ stunning run to make up vital ground in the title battle.
Harry Kane’s pair of successfully converted second-half penalties against Bremen has seen him move to 21 goals for the season and extend his lead in the top scorers’ race. Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick has seven fewer strikes at present but 12 in his last 11 league outings.
After his first match in charge of Borussia Dortmund ended in a 2-1 defeat at home to VfB Stuttgart, Niko Kovač will hope to claim a better result as his side make the short trip to VfL Bochum 1848 on Saturday. Bochum remain rooted to the bottom of the table after an entertaining 2-2 draw at Holstein Kiel, who are one place above them in the standings.
Kiel travel to Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday with the hosts hoping to end a run of three consecutive draws, which have nonetheless led to an impressive record of six matches unbeaten in 2025. That kind of form gives the Eagles every hope of keeping their top-four spot until the end of the season, as they currently lie third – four points clear of fifth-placed Stuttgart.
Stuttgart host Wolfsburg on Saturday in another fascinating match-up. The point against Leverkusen has underlined the Wolves’ hopes of emerging from a packed middle of the table – they are four positions but just five points below Stuttgart at present – to make a push for European qualification.
RB Leipzig are a point ahead of Stuttgart in fourth and will give their own UEFA Champions League qualification hopes a boost should they win at FC Augsburg in the matchday’s opener on Friday evening. With Augsburg prolonging a good unbeaten run to five matches with a 0-0 draw at 1. FSV Mainz 05, that might not be so straightforward, despite Leipzig taking a comfortable 2-0 win at home to FC St. Pauli last Sunday.
Mainz currently find themselves in seventh and will hope to lift their European qualification hopes with a result at 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 in the final encounter of the matchday on Sunday, with the hosts down in 16th and precariously placed in the relative safety of the play-off spot.
Heidenheim were narrowly beaten 1-0 at SC Freiburg last weekend. Freiburg are another team in the European picture in sixth place and travel to St. Pauli on Saturday.
Borussia Mönchengladbach are in eighth, but just five points short of the top four, and travel to 13th-placed 1. FC Union Berlin. Werder Bremen are in 10th but have just a single point less than Gladbach, and could rise into the top half with a win at home on Sunday to TSG Hoffenheim, who are in 15th and looking over their shoulder in the hope the four-point cushion they have over Heidenheim does not get any narrower.