By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Bundesliga logleaders Bayer 04 Leverkusen face a Rhine derby test to their unbeaten start to the season while reigning champions FC Bayern München need to overcome a rare bogey team to regain momentum in their pursuit of the league leaders.
For only the fifth time in the league’s history is a team unbeaten 18 games into a Bundesliga campaign, and Xabi Alonso’s men snatched a 15th win of a sensational season thanks to Piero Hincapie’s late winner at RB Leipzig last time out. Only two Pep Guardiola-led Bayern teams have ever had more points than the league leaders, who are now a very handy seven points clear of their nearest challengers. With Rhine neighbours Borussia Mönchengladbach winless in eight derbies against Die Werkself, Saturday’s top-of-the-bill encounter at the BayArena could well end with more celebration for Alonso’s swashbuckling side.
It is certain that Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel will have his eyes on that result. The rescheduled Matchday 13 game with 1. FC Union Berlin on Wednesday cut Leverkusen’s lead to four points. Now Tuchel is looking to guide his current team past his former employers FC Augsburg on Saturday. This has proven quite a test for Bayern coaches recently with Augsburg picking points from three of their last four home games with their Bavarian neighbours. Also, Jess Thorup has the hosts purring with 16 points their last 11 games – Bayern have been warned.
Behind the runaway front two, the race for the remaining top four places is tight. Just a single point separates VfB Stuttgart in third and Borussia Dortmund in fifth with RB Leipzig sandwiched in between. Third meets fourth at the MHPArena on Saturday with Stuttgart looking to pick up their first points of 2024; Leipzig are aiming to do the same, and have never lost to Stuttgart in the duo’s 11 top-flight encounters so far.
Borussia Dortmund will hope that game ends in a draw, enabling them to leapfrog both if they bring the curtain down on Matchday 19 with a win at home to VfL Bochum 1848. Edin Terzic’s men have made their best start to a calendar year in 11 years, but Bochum are in good form with a run of just two losses in their last 10.
While Union will hope to pick up something from their midweek trip to the Allianz Arena, they will have more hope of building on the momentum Nenad Bjelica has created when they entertain bottom side SV Darmstadt 98 on Sunday. Union have picked up seven points in four league games under their new coach to move into the relative safety of 15th place, three points above the bottom three. But with those teams all on 11 points, a rare win for Darmstadt could take them into the relegation/promotion play-off place.
That will depend on how its current occupants, 1. FSV Mainz 05, fare in their derby with Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday night. Mainz are winless in seven, though they have drawn five of those matches, and that stubbornness may keep them ahead of second-frombottom 1. FC Köln, who visit VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday.
Surprise packages 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 will reinforce their position in the top half of the table if they extend their unbeaten run to six games with a win over TSG Hoffenheim to move ahead of their Matchday 18 hosts and into eighth place on Saturday. That would put them just behind Sport-Club Freiburg, whose unbeaten start to 2024 will be tested in northern Germany by a SV Werder Bremen side on the high of a rare victory over Bayern last weekend.