Borussia Dortmund vs Bayer Leverkusen Preview

Borussia Dortmund will look to begin 2025 with a win when they welcome Bundesliga holders Bayer Leverkusen to Signal Iduna Park on Friday night.

The 2024/25 season has been underwhelming for Borussia Dortmund so far as they come into the second half of the season sitting in sixth place after taking 25 points from their opening 15 games. As such, they come into this fixture a whopping eleven points behind league leaders Bayern Munich.

Still, they remain in the top four race as they are just two points shy of fourth-placed RB Leipzig. The Signal Iduna Park outfit ended 2024 with a five-game unbeaten run (W2, D3), with their last game being a 3-1 win at Wolfsburg to register their first away league victory.

They will look to extend that unbeaten run here against a Bayer Leverkusen side that they are unbeaten against in four games (W2, D2). The Black and Yellows were one of just two Bundesliga sides that avoided a loss against the newly crowned champions last term and they are currently one of only two clubs in the league yet to lose at home this season (W6, D2).

And despite their last H2H defeat coming at their own stadium, Dortmund have a good recent record against Leverkusen at Signal Iduna Park across the last nine encounters (W7, D1, L1).

Meanwhile, Bayer Leverkusen are on an eight-match winning run, including their last five in the Bundesliga. As such, they now sit second and have moved to within four points of leaders Bayern Munich, putting them in contention to defend their title.

To cut that gap further, they’ll have to become the first Bundesliga side this season to win six straight games in the league in 2024/25 and the first Bundesliga side to beat Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park since April last year.

The reigning champions have the ability to achieve those feats, though, as they are the only club in the division yet to lose on the road this term (W4, D3). They also haven’t lost any of their last 24 away league encounters, while Leverkusen’s last such defeat on the last matchday of the 2022/23 campaign (3-0 at Bochum) was their last top-flight game on their travels in which they failed to score.

Other fixtures taking place this week in the German Bundesliga:

German Bundesliga Table