bundesliga

Super Matchday: Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund vs. RB Leipzig, VfB Stuttgart vs. Bayer Leverkusen

09.12.2023

The Bundesliga fixture list throws up intriguing contests each weekend, but Matchday 14 of the 2023/24 campaign is something else with six of the top seven teams in the division facing each other in an epic round of action.

Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Bayern Munich

Hands up if you thought Robert Lewandowski's single-season scoring record would ever be broken? If you have your arm raised, bundesliga.com would like to suggest you're being economical with the truth, but the fact is Harry Kane may well do just that.

We had to wait almost half a century for Lewandowski to beat Gerd Müller's seemingly improbable 40 goals in a single Bundesliga season in 2020/21. Now the former Bayern Munich man's record tally that looked like it would stand the test of time may become ancient history within just three years.

Kane 'only' has 18 goals this season - from just 12 games, of course - and if he continues at his current rate of scoring, he won't just beat Lewandowski's mark, he'll obliterate it with 51 Bundesliga goals in 2023/24. Yes, you can sit down and take a minute.

The England captain also has five assists this season - only two players league-wide have more, including Bayern teammate Leroy Sané - to give him 23 goal involvements, which is just three short of what Randal Kolo Muani achieved with Frankfurt in the whole of last season to finish top of that particular Bundesliga chart.

Watch: Every Kane goal in the Bundesliga

"You cannot rate his performances highly enough," said Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel, whose side will be fresh having had their home game with Union Berlin last weekend postponed due to snow.

Perhaps the elements are the only thing that can stop Kane right now as Bayern aim to claim the three points with a seventh successive league win that would take them to the top of the table - with the same number of games played - ahead of Leverkusen's match on Sunday.

Bayern won 6-1 in Frankfurt last season, but Frankfurt have a great home record against Bayern: they have won 20 and lost 16 of their top-flight meetings, with 16 draws. Borussia Mönchengladbach are the only other current Bundesliga team that can boast a positive home win/loss ratio against Bayern.

The hosts' Egypt international forward, Omar Marmoush, is in great form too with six league goals, a more than respectable tally at this stage of a season - in fact, only nine players have found the net more times this campaign league-wide - but Kane is making everyone else look very ordinary.

Watch: The best of Marmoush for Frankfurt

Frankfurt have also looked that in recent games too. After just one defeat in their first 11 matches under Dino Toppmöller, they have lost their last two, and have won only once in four league games: the 3-0 victory over Union on Matchday 10, which is also when Marmoush last found the net.

Borussia Dortmund vs. RB Leipzig

Want goals? Well, sit down for Saturday's late kick-off, settle into your favourite spot on the sofa, and get ready to be entertained. None, not a single one, of this pair's 16 competitive meetings has ended goalless.

That means you are likely to see Loïs Openda on the scoresheet once again. The Belgium international has raced out of the blocks since his summer arrival from Lens, netting 10 times in his opening 13 Bundesliga appearances - the iconic Gerd Müller only scored one more than that in his first 13 matches in the German top flight.

Openda also has the division's top goal-maker, Xavi Simons, behind him, with the Netherlands international - who is also in his maiden Bundesliga campaign - teeing up seven goals for his side already.

Watch: Xavi and Openda - Leipzig's new deadly duo

The match sees a number of intriguing sub-plots with so many ties between the two teams. Leipzig coach Marco Rose boasts the best win ratio of any Dortmund coach after leading them to a runners-up finish in 2021/22 - his sole campaign at Signal Iduna Park - while Dortmund midfielder Marcel Sabitzer made his name at Leipzig.

The Austria international was part of the Leipzig side that won promotion to the top flight for the first time in the club's history in 2015/16, and went on to score a healthy 32 goals in 145 Bundesliga outings for Die Roten Bullen.

Dortmund have their fair share of creativity too with Julian Brandt on five assists - only Xavi and Sané have more in the Bundesliga - and Edin Terzić's men will need their Germany international to be on song: they've lost four of their last five to Leipzig, including last season's DFB Cup quarter-final. They were also beaten 3-0 in last season's league meeting in Leipzig, Rose's first game in charge of RBL, though did gain a measure of revenge with a 2-1 home triumph later in the campaign. You won't want to miss this one!

Watch: Dortmund won the most recent encounter

VfB Stuttgart vs. Bayer Leverkusen

Come kick-off on Sunday, Leverkusen may not be league leaders given they are just three points clear of Bayern, who have a game in hand and superior goal difference. That in itself is incredible given what Xabi Alonso's men have done this season: only Pep Guardiola's title-winning Bayern side of 2015/16 have ever had more points (37) than Alonso's men (35) at this stage of a German top-flight campaign.

It has been a real team effort too. Nigerian forward Victor Boniface on eight goals and wing-back Alejandro Grimaldo on seven are their leading scorers, but no fewer than four players, Jonas Hofmann, Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz and Boniface, have five assists each this season as they share the creativity around.

Boniface got his eighth of the league campaign in the 1-1 draw at home to Dortmund last weekend, the first time Leverkusen had dropped points in nine competitive outings at the BayArena this season.

Watch: Every Boniface goal and assist in the Bundesliga

It is a measure of just how stratospherically well Leverkusen and Bayern have done that Stuttgart would have been top of the table in 39 of the Bundesliga's 60 seasons with their tally of 30 points from 13 games. Their 10 wins this early in a top-flight campaign equals the club record set by Felix Magath's 2003/04 squad, and yet Sebastian Hoeneß's side are 'only' third.

Their success has been fuelled by the prolific pairing of Serhou Guirassy and Deniz Undav. Only Kane has found the net more times than Guirassy's 16 this term, and the Guinea international's total added to Undav's makes it 24 goals between the pair of the 33 Stuttgart have struck. They have netted all but two of their club's last 18 strikes.

Watch: VfB Stuttgart - Super Strike Force

After losing back-to-back matches, Stuttgart are on a roll with three successive wins, and that momentum will be needed with the Swabian outfit having won just once in their last 22 league meetings with Leverkusen - a 1-0 home victory in April 2018. In addition to their current form, Die Werkself will travel to the south west of Germany with confidence: they've not been beaten there in 11 visits and over 14 years.

Vote: Who will win on Super Matchday?