How do Bayern and Leverkusen stack up?

Could it get any better for Bayern? Not really. Vincent Kompany's side have eight wins from eight in the Bundesliga and have set a European record with 14 victories in all competitions since the start of the season following their midweek DFB Cup defeat of Cologne. The secret? It's all quite simple, apparently.

"That we have started the season with 13 competitive games is no accident," said Bayern captain Joshua Kimmich after the 3-0 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach on Matchday 8.

"It's the reward for our hard work, productive training and a clear structure in the team. We have a really good squad, and you see that the boys who come in are at it immediately.

"Everyone is happy for everyone else when they score or make an assist. We're a really united team without everything being all peace and love. There is a performance principle, everyone wants to push on, but they do everything for the team."

Watch: Gladbach 0-3 Bayern - highlights

Leverkusen enjoyed a DFB Cup win of their own in midweek, and come into Matchday 9 in fifth place on 17 points - seven behind the runaway leaders - and firing impressively under Kasper Hjulmund, who took over from Erik ten Hag two games into the new league campaign.

Hjulmund has yet to see his team lose in the Bundesliga with their 2-0 defeat of Freiburg last time out their fifth win in six since the former Mainz and Denmark coach stepped in.

"We won impressively, it was deserved. We controlled the game well and kept possession," said midfielder Jonas Hofmann, while goalkeeper Mark Flekken highlighted how the team had bounced back from their midweek 7-2 home loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League.

"After the game against PSG, that was the right reaction," he explained. "It almost couldn't be better."

Watch: Leverkusen 2-0 Freiburg - highlights

This will be the duo's 93rd Bundesliga meeting. Bayern have very much been the dominant force in the match-up with 52 wins to Leverkusen's 20.

But as Hofmann said with regard to Leverkusen's defeat against PSG, "the past is the past, you can't change anything".

In fact, the duo's more recent encounters have been in Leverkusen's favour. In fact, since Hofmann moved to the BayArena from Mönchengladbach in 2023, he hasn't lost a league game against Bayern.

Die Werkself have not been defeated in their last six competitive domestic fixtures against the record German champions, with three wins and three clean sheets in that series, including a DFB Cup round of 16 victory at the Allianz Arena last December courtesy of Nathan Tella's goal.

However, Bayern have not lost a league game at home to Leverkusen since November 2019 when Leon Bailey got both of the visitors' goals in a 2-1 win.

In the five Bundesliga meetings since, Bayern have racked up just two wins, but Harry Kane scored twice as they triumphed 3-0 at home in a 5-0 aggregate drubbing of their domestic rivals in the Champions League round of 16 last season.

While Kane also scored in Bayern's away win in that European tie and hit two against Cologne in midweek to take his tally to a gob-smacking 22 goals in just 14 competitive outings this season, the England captain has often found the going tough against Leverkusen.

He has found the net just once in four league matches against them and registered an uncharacteristically low four goal attempts, something of a surprise given how he has plundered goal upon goal since arriving in Germany from Tottenham Hotspur in summer 2023.

The question remains, however: will stopping Kane be enough?

Watch: Kane's best passes

Everyone who saw the 3-0 scoreline from Borussia-Park surely assumed Kane was among the scorers. And if he wasn't, that he had been rested. But Bayern started with Kane alongside Luis Díaz, Nicolas Jackson and Michael Olise, who has four goals and three assists this term, and none of them got on the scoresheet.

The frightening strength in depth at Kompany's disposal meant the un-prolific Kimmich - with only his 46th competitive goal in over 450 appearances - and strikes from substitutes Lennart Karl and Raphaël Guerreiro were enough to see off their 10-man hosts.

It took Bayern to 30 goals scored in the league this season, nine more than the next-best in the division and 12 more than Leverkusen have managed in the same number of games.

Patrik Schick returned to action on Matchday 8, stepping off the bench for the final 13 minutes against Freiburg, and the Czechia international forward's return to fitness is a significant boost for Leverkusen.

Before he sustained the hamstring injury that sidelined him, the 29-year-old had tallied three goals in his first five appearances of the 2025/26 league season.

Though Christian Kofane scored once in both games Schick missed, the 19-year-old is just eight league appearances into his Bundesliga career: the experience allied to the quality Schick brings will give Bayern a bigger problem.

Schick, who signed a contract extension through to 2030 this summer, has played just one minute of the last four Bundesliga games against Bayern - in the 0-0 draw in Leverkusen in last season's Rückrunde - and has just two goals in six league meetings with the Bavarians. But given how he started the season that record could well be improved.

Leverkusen, too, have multiple goal threats. Alejandro Grimaldo has seven goal involvements in the league this season — only Kane, Diaz and Eintracht Frankfurt's Can Uzun have more — and he has not lost any of his four Bundesliga games against Bayern, scoring twice.

His brace of free-kick strikes in the 3-1 win over Frankfurt on Matchday 3 to give Hjulmund his first victory in charge reminded Bayern (if they needed it after he scored against them in 2023/24) that they can ill afford to give the Spain international a sight of goal from a set-piece.

Watch: Grimaldo's magic wand

Grimaldo is one of eight Leverkusen scorers in the Bundesliga this term - Bayern have 10 - with Ernest Poku prominent among them.

After a barren first three top-flight appearances following his summer arrival from AZ Alkmaar, Poku has three goals and an assist in his last four league games.

"I'm happy with it, I'm just trying to help the team," explained the 21-year-old after the win over Freiburg. "I think I'm doing quite well, I hope I can keep this flow. I'm very happy with it, but I'll keep trying to do it. This is not enough."

So, more to come from him, and with centre-backs Edmond Tapsoba (two goals) and Jarell Quansah (one goal) also already on the scoresheet this season, Bayern will have to be on their toes.

Sweat over skill?

Whichever side prevails in this heavyweight contest on Matchday 9, it is going to be quite some game.

The tussle for the ball will be intriguing as Bayern lead the Bundesliga possession chart with a huge average of 60 per cent per game, but Leverkusen are joint-second on 57 per cent.

They both use the ball carefully too with Bayern (90.3 per cent) the league's best in terms of successful passes from open play, but only just ahead of their opponents (89.2 per cent).

With all the quality on show, perhaps it will be grit and determination, sweat rather than skill, that decides it.

Surprisingly for a side that dominates the ball, Bayern have actually covered more distance (606 miles) than any other team - Leverkusen are some way back in 12th on 585 miles. But Hjulmund's side are nothing if not combative, and boast a league-high 883 duels won while Bayern languish last in the category on 601.

"Sometimes a blow is very important in order to learn," said Hjulmund after his team's Matchday 8 renaissance following their chastening European defeat.

Will Leverkusen now have Bayern on the ropes for the first time this season, especially with the hosts perhaps having one eye on their upcoming Champions League encounter with PSG? Or will Kompany's runaway league leaders deliver another KO to one of their Bundesliga title rivals?

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