Bundesliga Preview: Leverkusen host champions Bayern

Bayer Leverkusen can end Bayern Munich’s unbeaten start to the Bundesliga for a second consecutive season when the sides meet on Saturday.

Leverkusen were the last side to beat Bayern in the league, recording a 2-1 victory in October 2012 to end their undefeated start to last term.

However, the champions recovered to go on a 32-game unbeaten run, with their most recent victory yielding a 1-0 victory over Wolfsburg last weekend.

Both sides have been in excellent domestic form this season and will go into the clash at the BayArena off the back of wins in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday.

Pep Guardiola’s Bayern have conceded one goal away from the Allianz Arena in the Bundesliga this season while Leverkusen have struck 12 goals at home with a win for either side able to move them top of the table.

That is dependant on leaders Borussia Dortmund dropping points in their away fixture against Borussia Monchengladbach.

Jurgen Klopp’s side picked up their first points of the current Champions League campaign with a 3-0 win over Marseille on Tuesday thanks to the in-form Marco Reus and Robert Lewandowski.

The pair scored twice each in Dortmund’s 5-0 success against Freiburg on Saturday and were again on target in Europe, with the league’s leading scorer Lewandowski scoring twice against Elie Baup’s men.

Werder Bremen will hope to maintain their mini-revival against Stuttgart, having gone two games without defeat after three successive losses, while Bert van Marwijk can pick up his first Bundesliga points as Hamburg boss.

His charges face Nuremberg and the Dutchman has been pleased with what he has seen from his new side since taking over from Thorsten Fink in September.

“We are satisfied with the (draw against Eintracht Frankfurt) and the team put some of the things into practise that we had planned beforehand, like for instance everyone in the team defended,” he told the club’s official website.

“We will surely need a few weeks to swim clear of the lower regions of the table.”

Winless Eintracht Braunschweig travel to Wolfsburg while Schalke will hope to build on their Champions League success against Basel on Tuesday when they host Augsburg.

Mainz will aim to avoid a fifth straight league defeat against Hoffenheim with Hertha Berlin able to leapfrog their opponents on Saturday, Hannover, with a draw at the HDI-Arena.

Both sides have registered just one victory in their last three games going into Friday’s clash, with Hannover having won one of the sides’ last five meetings.

The final game of the weekend sees winless Freiburg host Frankfurt on Sunday.