Bayer Leverkusen vs Stuttgart: Bundesliga Clash as Seasons Diverge

Bayer Leverkusen’s fast start to the Bundesliga season meets Stuttgart’s early crisis on Saturday, and the table tells the story before a ball is kicked.

Seven games in, Carles Martinez’s side sit fourth, seven points clear of a Stuttgart team languishing in 15th. One looks like a Champions League contender. The other is a Champions League participant playing like a relegation candidate.

Contrasting paths to the BayArena

Stuttgart arrive at the BayArena with six points from seven league matches. For a club juggling domestic duties with Europe’s elite competition, that return is grim.

Sebastian Hoeness has watched his side lose five of those seven. They are the only team in the division yet to draw, lurching from defeat to defeat with no sense of stability. Friday’s 3-2 home loss to Borussia Monchengladbach cut deepest. Gladbach came into that game on a six-match losing streak and still left with all three points.

Hoeness admitted afterwards that complacency had crept into his dressing room. The numbers back up the concern. Stuttgart have taken just three points from four away games and scored only four times on their travels. The road has been unforgiving, and the BayArena rarely offers mercy.

Leverkusen, by contrast, look comfortable in their own skin. Martinez’s men have collected 13 points and are perfect at home: three wins from three, eight goals scored and just one conceded. Union Berlin were swept aside 4-0, RB Leipzig beaten 2-0. In front of their own supporters, Leverkusen play with authority and conviction.

There was a jolt last weekend, a 3-0 defeat away to Hoffenheim that snapped their early rhythm. Martinez will hope Wednesday’s DFB-Pokal tie at Nurnberg brings no fresh injuries and a quick reset. The league, and the chance to reassert control, returns on Saturday.

Schick leads the charge, history on Leverkusen’s side

At the heart of Leverkusen’s threat stands Patrik Schick. The centre-forward already has six league goals and, according to FotMob, is the club’s standout performer this season with a rating of 7.79. He offers more than finishing; he sets the tone for a side that attacks with intent.

History leans their way too. Leverkusen have won 19 of the last 31 meetings between these clubs, a sustained pattern of superiority that Stuttgart must break while in their most fragile moment of the campaign.

The probable lineups underline the task ahead for Hoeness.

Leverkusen are expected to go with:

Flekken; Gutierrez, Tapsoba, Quansah, Medina; Fernandez, Garcia; Tella, Maza, Tillman; Schick.

Stuttgart are likely to respond with:

Seimen; Assignon, Mittelstadt, Hendriks, Jeltsch; Stiller, Karazor; Leweling, Fuhrich, Undav; Demirovic.

Hoeness must also make do without Dan-Axel Zagadou and Josha Vagnoman. A defence that conceded three at home to bottom club Gladbach now walks into one of the toughest attacking environments in the league short-handed.

Goals almost guaranteed

This fixture has a habit of opening up. Both teams have scored in eight of the last nine Bundesliga meetings between Leverkusen and Stuttgart. It is not a matchup that lends itself to sterile, cautious football.

Stuttgart’s season so far offers another twist. Their position in 15th suggests a blunt attack. The underlying numbers tell a different story. They sit seventh in the Bundesliga xG table with 13.9 expected goals and rank second for big chances missed with 22. They create, they arrive in good areas, and then they waste it.

That profile makes them dangerous in moments, even in hostile territory. One clear chance at the BayArena is almost a given. The question is whether they can take it – and whether it will matter.

At the other end, Stuttgart have the second-worst xG conceded in the league at 17.5. Teams do not just edge past them; they carve them open. Against a Leverkusen side that has been ruthless at home, that imbalance feels critical.

Leverkusen’s home dominance

The numbers at the BayArena are stark: three wins, eight scored, one conceded. Union Berlin crushed, Leipzig handled, another opponent picked apart. The pattern is of a team that starts on the front foot and rarely loosens its grip.

Stuttgart’s away form could hardly contrast more sharply. Three points from four trips, four goals scored, and a defensive unit that looks brittle even before you factor in key absences. Gladbach, rock bottom and out of form, still found a way to put three past them last Friday.

All signs point to Leverkusen having the tools to win with room to spare. The hosts are not simply edging games at home; they are controlling them, stretching them, and finishing them off.

Maza, the creative heartbeat

Amid the headlines for Schick, Ibrahim Maza is quietly becoming one of Martinez’s most important players.

He is joint-second top scorer for Leverkusen with two league goals and already has four goal contributions in the 2026/27 campaign. FotMob rates him as the squad’s third-best performer on 7.44, behind only Schick and Aleix Garcia.

His real value lies in what happens before the finish. Maza leads Leverkusen with 17 chances created and an expected assists figure of 2.9. Blend his xG and xA together and you get 0.76 per 90 minutes – the output of a player constantly involved in decisive moments.

With Christian Kofane sidelined by a thigh injury and Martin Terrier and Moussa Diaby also out, Maza’s place in the starting XI is virtually guaranteed. The responsibility to unlock Stuttgart’s shaky back line will fall heavily on his shoulders, and his form suggests he will welcome it.

A fragile giant under pressure

Stuttgart’s season is at an awkward crossroads. The Champions League brings glamour and revenue, but it also exposes every weakness when league form nosedives. Six points from seven games, five defeats, no draws, and a defence leaking high-quality chances: this is not a sustainable path.

Leverkusen, hurt by their setback at Hoffenheim, have the perfect stage to respond. A loud home crowd, a vulnerable visitor, and a chance to reassert their top-four credentials.

If Martinez’s side play with the same conviction they have shown in their previous home outings, Stuttgart will need more than just a correction in attitude. They will need to be clinical at one end and near-perfect at the other.

Right now, nothing about their season suggests that balance is close.