Granit Xhaka's (c.) Bayer Leverkusen will have their hands full up against Jamal Musiala (l.) and Bayern Munich in 2024/25. - © Leon Kuegeler

bundesliga

Bayer Leverkusen vs. Bayern Munich, Der Klassiker and the key Bundesliga fixtures in 2024/25

04.07.2024

Defending Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen open the 2024/25 season away to local rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach, but what other fixtures should you be looking out for in the weeks and months ahead? bundesliga.com explains all…

Click here for the full 2024/25 Bundesliga fixture list!

Der Klassiker

Matchday 12, 29 November – 1 December 2024 (Dortmund)
Matchday 29, 11-13 April 2025 (Munich)

No matter where Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund sit in the standings, Der Klassiker is the biggest fixture on the German football calendar, between Germany’s two largest and best-supported clubs.

Bayern’s Harry Kane made his mark on the fixture with a hat-trick in Dortmund last season, but BVB took their sweet revenge in Munich, recording their first Klassiker win since 10 November 2018.

Steered by former players turned new Bundesliga coaches Vincent Kompany and Nuri Şahin respectively, Bayern and Dortmund will do it all again at Signal Iduna Park on Matchday 12 of the new campaign, before locking horns in Munich at the business end of the season. Will it, like so often down the years, be a meeting of the top two with wider implications for the title race?

Watch: Dortmund finally won in Munich again in March 2024

Leverkusen vs. Bayern

Matchday 5, 27-29 September 2024 (Munich)
Matchday 22, 14-16 February 2024 (Leverkusen)

Not if Leverkusen have anything to do about it. The defending champions had the title sewn up on Matchday 29 of 2023/24, Die Werkself ending Bayern’s unprecedented 11-year reign at the top.

The writing was already on the wall when the then holders suffered a chastening 3-0 loss in Leverkusen in February. Thomas Tuchel’s fallen champions ultimately ended the season in third place, some 18 points behind Xabi Alonso’s Invincibles.

Subplots abound in 2024/25, not least when a new-look Bayern host the holders in Munich as early as Matchday 5. The record champions are winless in three against Alonso’s Leverkusen, but will be confident they can get back to the familiar position of hunted rather than hunters come the return fixture on Matchday 22.

Watch: Leverkusen overpowered Bayern last season

Leipzig vs. Bayern

Matchday 15, 20-22 December 2024 (Munich)
Matchday 32, 2-4 May 2025 (Leipzig)

RB Leipzig beat Bayern on the penultimate weekend of 2022/23 and again in the Supercup. They even led the men from Munich 2-0 after 26 minutes of their first league clash of 2023/24, only to be pegged back to a 2-2 draw.

It was another high-octane contest in keeping with the budding rivalry between the great German footballing superpower and the young pretenders to the throne, who have managed to at least tease a title challenge in pretty much all their eight top-flight seasons to date.

Beaten 2-1 in Munich last term, Leipzig will get their first chance to redress the balance on the final matchday of the calendar year. The two sides will do it all again in Leipzig in early May, at a potentially decisive phase in the campaign.

Watch: Harry Kane's match-winning brace against Leipzig

Dortmund vs. Leipzig

Matchday 9, 1-3 November 2024 (Dortmund)
Matchday 26, 14-16 March 2025 (Leipzig)

Bayern are expected to be the biggest threat to Leverkusen’s crown, but Dortmund and Leipzig certainly have what it takes to be part of the title equation. In the last eight years alone, they’ve amassed six runners-up finishes between them.

Inconsistent form instead meant a top-four finish became the shared object of their desires in 2023/24. Leipzig won home and away on their way to securing fourth place ahead of BVB, though both have UEFA Champions League football to look forward to in the new campaign.

Heading into 2024/25, the two clubs are tied on eight wins apiece, plus two draws, measured over their 20 Bundesliga meetings. The fact that ex-Dortmund boss Marco Rose currently presides over Leipzig adds that little bit of extra spice to proceedings.

Watch: Leipzig were too good for Dortmund in 2023/24

Bayern vs. Gladbach

Matchday 16, 10-12 January 2025 (Mönchengladbach)
Matchday 33, 9-11 May 2025 (Munich)

What Leipzig vs. Dortmund perhaps lacks in what José Mourinho once referred to as 'heritage', games between Bayern and Gladbach have in spades. One of the Bundesliga's defining rivalries, the two German powerhouses shared the Meisterschale in nine consecutive seasons during the 1970s, in what was a golden era for club and country alike.

Although Bayern have gone on to become the country's dominant force in domestic and European competition - famously winning the 2012/13 treble under Gladbach darling Jupp Heynckes - latter-days meetings have lost none of their spark.

No Bundesliga club has a better record against the record champions over the last decade or so than the Foals, who have the distinction of being something of a bogey team for Germany's most successful club. It would be very Gladbach to throw a spanner in the Bayern works when acquaintances are renewed on Matchdays 16 and 33.

Watch: Bayern vs. Gladbach explained

Rhine derby – Leverkusen vs. Gladbach

Matchday 1, 23 August (Mönchengladbach)
Matchday 18, 17-19 January 2025 (Leverkusen)

Leverkusen will be hoping to prevent Gladbach from rolling back the years, when they begin their title defence with a short hop to Borussia-Park on Matchday 1.

Bayer hold all the cards, having put together a nine-game unbeaten run in the fixture, but Gladbach were the one German team to stop the champions from scoring in 2023/24, and do have a habit of upsetting the big boys.

Cologne’s relegation to the second tier means it’s the only Rhine derby on the Bundesliga calendar in 2024/25, so be sure to savour the occasion!

Mini Revierderby – Dortmund vs. Bochum

Matchday 5, 27-29 September 2024 (Dortmund)
Matchday 22, 14-16 February 2024 (Bochum)

Local bragging rights will also be on the line when Dortmund face Bochum in the ‘mini Revierderby’.

Although the fixture doesn’t carry as much weight historically as the Revierderby between BVB and Schalke, it’s still a derby – in the football-mad Ruhr district at that. Bochum’s Ruhr-Stadion is one of the toughest places to go in German football, while Dortmund’s Signal Iduna Park temple is arguably the most spectacular backdrop in the modern game.

Put all the ingredients together, and you’re guaranteed a melting pot of Bundesliga goodness to warm the heart and soul - and leave you coming back for more. Roll on, 2024/25!