For a long time, Borussia Dortmund was Bayern Munich’s main challenger for the national title in Germany. In recent years, young RB Leipzig has joined the list of competitors. The club has grown rapidly and can also be found in the Champions League almost every year.
Bayern Munich is still unapproachable in the Bundesliga for now, but how long will that last? For now, the club has by far the biggest budget in the league and also gets a lot of revenue from its successes in the Bundesliga and Champions League. The club from Bavaria has been German champions for 10 years in a row. Can RB Leipzig break that hegemony?
Betting markets RB Leipzig – Bayern Munich
Winner
It is the first time the two clubs have faced each other in the league. The Bundesliga is not yet halfway through the season, partly due to the 2022 World Cup. Bayern Munich are leaders and have a six-point lead over RB Leipzig. So this match could make a lot of difference in the title race. Bayern Munich are the away team, but are the favourites with odds of 1.80 on victory. RB Leipzig is on 4.00 to make the Bundesliga more exciting with a win. A draw is on 4.10.
Goal scorers
RB Leipzig has a clear top scorer with Christopher Nkunku. The Frenchman is already on 12 goals after 15 games, making him the top scorer in the Bundesliga. A goal from him against Bayern now stands at 2.80, the opening goal even at 7.50. His teammate Timo Werner is on 3.20 to score. Bayern Munich have distributed the goals slightly more among the players. Newly 19-year-old top talent Jamal Musiala has scored nine goals and now gets odds of 3.35 on a goal. Sadio Mané gets the lowest odds at 2.38, ahead of Serge Gnabry at 2.55.
Number of goals
On 30 July, these two clubs did open the season against each other in the DFL Super Cup. Bayern Munich stood as national champions in this battle, RB Leipzig as winners of the DFB Pokal. In a rain of goals, Bayern emerged victorious 5-3. Last season, Bayern won 3-2 and 4-1. ‘More than 2.5 goals’ therefore now stands at a meagre 1.38, ‘more than 3.5 goals’ at 2.00. For 4.5, you end up with odds of 3.35.
Profit margin
You obviously have dozens of betting markets to choose from when betting on football. An interesting betting market in this match might be the profit margin. If you expect Bayern Munich to win again, look for example at a double bet: winning with exactly 2 goals difference is at 5.40, with 3 goals difference at 9.00.
RB Leipzig
Current form
It is difficult to talk about current form when the last match dates from 12 November. After all, this is only RB Leipzig’s first game after the 2022 World Cup. In any case, the club from eastern Germany ended 2022 strongly. In the Bundesliga, they won four games in a row. In between, they beat both Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League. As a result, they meet Manchester City next month.
Highlights
By far coach Marco Rose’s most important asset is striker Christopher Nkunku. So far, the 25-year-old Frenchman has scored 12 of 30 league goals for RB Leipzig. In the Champions League, he made three. His attacking partner Timo Werner has only played nine league games this season and scored four times. 20-year-old Croatian defender Joko Gvardiol played himself into the spotlight through a fantastic World Cup.
Worth knowing
Danish midfielder Yussuf Poulsen has witnessed almost the entire rise of RB Leipzig in Germany. He joined the club in 2013 when it had just been promoted from the Regionalliga to the 3. Bundesliga, the third tier. Within three seasons, RB Leipzig had been promoted to the Bundesliga, where it debuted with a second-place finish behind Bayern Munich. Emil Forsberg and Lukas Klostermann have been playing for Leipzig since 2014.
Bayern Munich
Current form
As far as form is concerned, the same applies to Bayern Munich, of course. Coach Julian Nagelsmann’s team is on a six-game winning streak that includes no fewer than 24 goals. In between, they also won the Champions League ‘group of death’ fairly easily. FC Barcelona, Internazionale, and Viktoria Plzen all kneeled to Bayern Munich, with a goal difference of 18-2 for the Germans.
Standouts
Bayern Munich’s most notable transfer this winter was, of course, the acquisition of Daley Blind. The 32-year-old defender had been sidelined at Ajax after the 2022 World Cup. Meanwhile, Bayern are also busy looking for a replacement for goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who had broken his leg while skiing. In any case, the long break after the World Cup will have served Bayern well, as no fewer than 16 Bayern players were active at that World Cup.
Interesting facts
Bayern Munich’s 10 national titles in a row are not yet a record. Tafea FC from tiny Vanuatu won 15 titles in a row between 1994 and 2009. In Europe, the record with 14 is held by Skonto Riga from Latvia and Lincoln Red Imps from Gibraltar. Rosenborg of Norway and BATE Borisov of Belarus are on 13. Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia and Ludogorets of Bulgaria on 11. Ludogorets, like Bayern, are still working on their series.
History RB Leipzig – Bayern Munich
History & Rivalry
RB Leipzig is still a young football club that entered the Bundesliga in 2016 after several quick promotions. In their first season, they came straight to second place behind Bayern Munich, albeit 15 points behind. Since then, they finished in the top three of the Bundesliga three more times. The best result came in 2020-2021, when they finished second again and now 13 points behind. Apart from Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig look like one of Bayern Munich’s biggest challengers.
Statistics
Since RB Leipzig’s emergence, the two teams have met 15 times. Only once out of those did Leipzig manage to win, in March 2018. Ten times Bayern Munich were victorious and four times it was a draw. In 2019, they played the final of the DFB Pokal against each other, which Bayern won 3-0. So in July 2022, they fought for the DFL-Supercup and then Bayern also won, 5-3. Incidentally, the last four encounters all went to the current national champion.
Betting on RB Leipzig – Bayern Munich
Of course, there are plenty of options to bet on RB Leipzig – Bayern Munich at Dutch bookmakers. But what are the best bets to make right now?
Prediction
The difference in quality is abundantly clear in the selections of both clubs. RB Leipzig must hope for a huge off-day from Bayern Munich to even have a chance. After all, Bayern knows it can take a good hit in the title race here. Robert Lewandowski will no longer be missed, as Bayern now just have five strikers who are already on at least five league goals. That does not even include all-rounder Thomas Müller. Therefore, we are going for a clear Bayern Munich victory with at least two goals difference.
Top 3 memorable editions
May 13, 2017: RB Leipzig – Bayern Munich 4-5
In the 33rd round of play, the two clubs met when Bayern were already beyond reach as upcoming Bundesliga champions. They entered the match in a rock-solid line-up that included Robert Lewandowski, Thiago, Franck Ribéry, Philipp Lahm, David Alaba, and Arjen Robben. Leipzig played a fantastic game including two goals from Timo Werner. In injury time, Bayern Munich turned the match around: from 4-3 after 90 minutes, it became 4-5 after 95 minutes. The winning goal came as a courtesy of 33-year-old Arjen Robben.
December 5, 2020: Bayern Munich – RB Leipzig 3-3
The last time Bayern failed to win against Leipzig, both teams scored three goals. Leipzig got to 0-1 and 2-3 through a goal by Justin Kluivert, among others. But Thomas Müller saved Bayern from defeat with his second goal. It was notable that Kingsley Coman came to three assists for Bayern Munich in this game.
July 30, 2022: RB Leipzig – Bayern Munich 3-5
The most recent encounter between the two clubs was for the German Super Cup and turned into a huge spectacle. At Bayern Munich, five different players scored, including the new acquisition Sadio Mané who came from Liverpool. Leipzig did what it could, but fell short of the second top prize in their history.
