Bayern Munich are hoping to pick up where they left off before the 2024/25 winter break with a victory on the road at Borussia Mönchengladbach on Matchday 16. However, the Foals have proven to be a thorn in the record champions' side for many years now and points may come at a premium for Kompany's men...

bundesliga.com takes a look at the top five teams that have a tendency to haunt the record champions…

1) Mainz

Let’s start with the 05ers. Bo Henriksen's side are a bit of an exception on this list, as Bayern have won a whopping 78 percent of all league games against Mainz over the years, with the Carnival club triumphing just eight times. 

However, Mainz are deserving of this special mention given that four of those wins have come in the last eight league meetings, with those four coming in their last five encounters at the MEWA Arena.

Watch: Highlights of Mainz's Matchday 14 win over Bayern

On Matchday 29 of the 2022/23 season, Bayern were hoping to gain momentum in a title race against Dortmund, only for Mainz to overturn a 1-0 deficit with three second-half goals in the space of 14 minutes to throw a spanner in the works.

Then-head coach Bo Svensson's charges won 3-1 in 2022 as well, following on from a 2-1 success the previous year. Bayern were finally able to put an end to the four-game losing streak in October 2023, as they triumphed 3-1 against a struggling Mainz side. However, following Svensson's dismissal, his compatriot and namesake Bo Henriksen picked up from where he left off, guiding the 05ers to a 2-1 home victory over Bayern on his first attempt.

There was an 8-1 drubbing of Mainz at the Allianz Arena back in March, but the bottom line that Bayern have lost four of their last eight league meetings against the Carnival club cannot be overlooked.

2) Wattenscheid 09

Top of the pile in the bogey team stakes, however, is Wattenscheid. The Ruhr district club, located to the west of Dortmund as a district of Bochum, are perhaps most famous for having had Leroy Sané’s father, Souleyman, on their books during their four-year stay in the Bundesliga from 1990-94.

They secured finishes of 11th, 16th and 14th in their first three seasons before being relegated in 17th place in their final top-flight campaign. While Sané senior and Co. lost 7-0 in their first meeting with Bayern, they went on to achieve something remarkable against the Munich giants in the ensuing years.

Souleyman Sané, Leroy's father, in action for Wattenscheid against Stuttgart in 1990/91. - imago/Kicker/Liedel

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They won 3-2 later that same season, one of two victories against Bayern, while also securing three draws – two of which were away from home. As a result, Bayern’s overall win ratio stands at just 37.5 percent, their lowest quota against any opposition they have faced in the Bundesliga.

Happily for Bayern, there is little chance of a reunion any time soon as Wattenscheid were relegated from the Regionalliga West (fourth division) last season, so they would need an RB Leipzig-esque rise from the lower reaches of the German football pyramid to reach the upper echelon.

3) RB Leipzig

Speaking of Leipzig, it is probably wise to keep their name to a whisper in Bavaria, as Die Roten Bullen have skewered Bayern themselves on more than one occasion. Leipzig beat Bayern 3-0 in the 2023 Supercup and drew 2-2 on Matchday 6 of the 2023/24 campaign, having taken a 2-0 lead.

Before then, Leipzig won 3-1 in Munich in May 2023 and drew 1-1 draw at the Red Bull Arena just four months prior. It was perhaps telling that after that stalemate, head coach Marco Rose spoke of “a deserved draw” and a “fair result overall”, the implication being that Leipzig are now operating at a similar level to the record champions and are upstarts no longer.

Their four-match unbeaten run against Bayern came to an end in February 2024 as Harry Kane scored a stoppage-time winner as it finished 2-1 to the home side, but with a trip to Munich coming up on Matychday 15, there is a chance to start a fresh streak.

Watch: Highlights of Leipzig's 2023 Supercup triumph over Bayern

So while Bayern still have the upper hand historically, with eight Bundesliga victories from 16 games (50 percent win ratio), four of those came in the first five meetings. Leipzig have been increasingly holding their own more recently and are well on the way to becoming the biggest of thorns in Bayern’s side.

4) Borussia Mönchengladbach

That title currently belongs to Gladbach, though. Prior to Bayern's league double in 2023/24, as they won 2-1 at Borussia-Park and then 3-1 at the Allianz Arena, the Foals were on a historic roll and went into the fixture unbeaten in five competitive games against Bayern, a club-record sequence comprising three wins and two draws.

Indeed, it was no mere hot streak but part of a wider pattern dating back over more than a decade. Since the start of the 2011/12 campaign, no other club had taken anywhere near as many points off Bayern as Gladbach did; 10 wins, 10 defeats, five draws. Gladbach also hammered Bayern 5-0 in the DFB Cup second round in October 2021.

Watch: Gladbach's win over Bayern in February 2023 

Such a pattern of positive results was itself was the continuation of a long-standing rivalry dating back to the 1970s, when Gladbach won all five of their Bundesliga titles to date as they battled with Bayern for domestic supremacy. 

As such, Bayern have ‘only’ won 47.3 percent of all their Bundesliga games with Gladbach (53 of 112), the Foals triumphing 28 times (31 draws).

5) Borussia Dortmund

Gladbach may have been Bayern’s biggest rivals over half a century ago, but in more recent times Dortmund have come closest to knocking them off their perch. So much so, in fact, that they are the only other team against whom Bayern’s win percentage is less than 50 percent.

BVB’s best streak against Bayern arrived in the Jürgen Klopp era, when they won four consecutive Bundesliga assignments between October 2010 and April 2012 by a cumulative scoreline of 9-2, as part of a six-game unbeaten streak. Dortmund famously won back-to-back league titles in those seasons.

Watch: Highlights of Dortmund's last Bundesliga win over Bayern in March 2024

BVB's five-and-a-half-year wait for a league victory over Bayern came to an end on Matchday 27 of the 2023/24 season, where they not only emerged 2-0 victors from the 110th edition of Der Klassiker, but also did so in Bayern's backyard.

The defeat came at a crucial point in the season for the German record champions, whose 11-year dominance in the Bundesliga was broken two weeks later as Bayer Leverkusen became mathematically insurmountable atop the league standings. This defeat to BVB was one of the final blows for Bayern, who ultimately finished the season in third behind VfB Stuttgart.

Overall, Bayern have taken maximum points off Dortmund 54 times from 111 league games, losing 26 and drawing 31, a ratio of 48.7 percent which grew marginally smaller after they were held to a 1-1 draw at Signal-Iduna Park on matchday 12 of the 2024/25 season.

About the clubs

FC Bayern München

Allianz Arena

Borussia Dortmund

SIGNAL IDUNA PARK

1. FSV Mainz 05

MEWA ARENA

RB Leipzig

Red Bull Arena

Borussia Mönchengladbach

BORUSSIA-PARK