How do Leipzig & Leverkusen stack up?

Season turnaround

What a whirlwind of a campaign it’s been for both of Saturday’s Topspiel protagonists. But just who has enjoyed the better turnaround in fortunes following respective openings of the 2025/26 season to forget?

Bayer 04 – this weekend’s visitors to the Red Bull Arena – were not long into coach Erik Ten Hag’s reign when they suffered a 5-1 pre-season friendly reverse against the Flamengo U20s that initially raised concerns.

After an opening Bundesliga loss at home to Hoffenheim preceded a dramatic 3-3 draw against Werder Bremen – a game which the Werkself had led 3-1 – the team from the banks of the Rhine made the high-profile decision to dismiss their Dutch tactician, who had been brought in to take over from double-winning coach Xabi Alonso.  

While alarm bells were ringing at the North Rhine-Westphalia-based club, over in Saxony, eyebrows were raised when Leipzig’s start to their Bundesliga title tilt under new head coach Ole Werner began with a 6-0 loss to defending champions Bayern Munich.

After a season in which Die Roten Bullen had failed to qualify for European competition for the first time since promotion to Germany’s top flight in 2016, this was a worrying opening to a campaign previously filled with promise.  

Watch: Leipzig were stunned in Munich at the start of the season 

Yet, fast forward four months and both of Saturday’s opponents have enjoyed massive upswings, Leipzig winning 10 of their next 13 Bundesliga matches as they marched up the standings to sit on the shoulders of their opening-day conquerers Bayern.

Leverkusen, meanwhile, brought in affable Danish tactical mastermind Kasper Hjulmand, who quickly set the team on a sequence of just one loss in 10 matches in all competitions, and that against the defending European champions Paris Sain-Germain in the UEFA Champions League, the competition in which Bayer 04 currently sit in the knockout-phase qualification places.

In the Bundesliga, Hjulmand’s men are fourth, just three points behind Leipzig. So, just who has enjoyed the better turnaround? Saturday’s must-see meeting will tell a tale...

Indispensable full backs 

You would be hard pushed to find two more impactful and consistent full-backs in Europe’s top five leagues right now than Leipzig’s David Raum and Alejandro Grimaldo of Leverkusen. Needless to say, both will be crucial to their respective team’s chances this weekend and whomever boasts the better individual rating on the day, will likely have been on the wining side.

Home captain and current Germany first-choice Raum has been a colossus on the left flank for the Red Bulls as they have put together an early title-challenging run. Few have put in as much running (152.8km) as Leipzig’s ever-present 27-year-old, while 33 successful crosses from open play have provided the team with a vital creative outlet. A couple of goals and an assist to go with 113 tackles only serve to amplify the presence of one of the division’s standout, all-round performers.

Watch: Raum on target against Cologne

Leverkusen set-piece specialist Grimaldo offers even more in an attacking sense. The Spain international and FIFA World Cup hopeful has eight goal involvements (four of his own, plus four assists) in the Bundesliga alone so far this season.

What’s more, the BayArena favourite and first name on many a Bundesliga Fantasy Manager's teamsheet has managed to produce those numbers in three games fewer than his Leipzig counterpart, who will no doubt relish the challenge of playing catch-up on Bundesliga Matchday 15.

Watch: Leverkusen's beating heart

Young stars

The Bundesliga has long been known as one of the cradles for the finest young footballing talent out there, and there will be plenty of proof of that at the Red Bull Arena this weekend. Leipzig’s newest young starlets have been lighting up the division under coach Werner, with Assan Ouédraogo, Yan Diomande and Johan Bakayoko, in particular, setting RBL’s attack alight.

The downside for local fans this weekend is that the recent Germany debutant Ouédraogo is injured while Diomande has joined up with the Ivory Coast for AFCON duty. However, versatile Belgian star Bakayoko (22) is ready to shine in his teammates’ absences and playing alongside France U20 international Tidiam Gomis and the 20 year-old Danish striker Conrad Harder will make Leipzig a forward-moving force to be reckoned with.

Leverkusen will also have some key team members at AFCON, 20-year-old Algerian midfielder Ibrahim Maza and Cameroon teen Christian Kofane among them. Hjulmand will thus be keen to see summer signing from AZ Alkmaar and young attacking speedster Ernest Poku shake off an injury niggle to feature.

The versatile Dutch U21 international has weighed in to Bayer’s fine season with six Bundesliga goal involvements (four goals, two assists) and could look to combine with another summer arrival in USMNT star Malik Tillman (23).

Watch: Leverkusen's rising stars

Home specialists vs. away-day heroics

It was only as recently as November that Leverkusen were the undisputed kings of the road in Europe. A 3-0 Matchday 9 setback in Munich against the mighty Bayern brought to an end a spectaular away-day record that saw Bayer 04 go 37 top-flight games unbeaten, an all-time Bundesliga record.

In total, Leverkusen’s sensational sequence away from the BayArena lasted 889 days and stretched back to the 2022/23 season. Among teams in Europe’s top five leagues, only European giants AC Milan and PSG ever managed better unbeaten away league runs than Leverkusen, who have since added a loss at Augsburg to that aforementioned Bayern reverse.

For their part, Leipzig are the only team in this season’s Bundesliga with a 100 per cent winning home record. All of Heidenheim, Cologne, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Werder Bremen and Eintracht Frankfurt have been vanquished at the Red Bull Arena this term, the latter downed by an emphatic 6-0 scoreline in Die Roten Bullen’s most recent home encounter.      

Watch: Leipzig take Frankfurt apart 

All told, Saturday’s clash could not be poised any more tantalisingly as Leipzig and Leverkusen get set to meet head on in a top-four battle that is bound to entertain.