Bayern Munich vs Stuttgart: Champions Kick Off Bundesliga Season
Bayern Munich begin another Bundesliga title defence on Friday night with a familiar feeling: expectation. The German champions already have their first trophy of the season in the bag after edging Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the Super Cup, and Vincent Kompany walks into his first league game in charge with momentum, noise and pressure all rolled into one.
Stuttgart arrive as more than just supporting cast. They finished fourth last season, earned a Champions League place and played their way into wider respect. But they also ended 26 points behind Bayern. That gap still tells its own story.
Bayern already in gear – at least going forward
Kompany’s side have wasted little time reminding the league what they do best. Bayern have now scored in 56 straight competitive matches, a streak that started, fittingly, against Stuttgart last August. When this team gets rolling in the final third, it rarely stops.
The problem? The back door has been open too often. Last season, 65% of Bayern’s games saw both teams score. At the Allianz Arena that figure jumped to 71%, with only Freiburg and Köln seeing more home matches where both sides found the net. Bayern create chaos, but they often invite some of it back.
That will encourage a Stuttgart side that spent last season turning away days into shoot-outs. An astonishing 82% of their league games on the road finished with both teams scoring, a number bettered only by Eintracht Frankfurt. This is not a side that parks the bus; they push on, they commit bodies, and they live with the risk.
The recent numbers back up the sense of an open contest. Both teams have scored in each of Bayern’s last five matches. Three of Stuttgart’s last five have followed the same pattern. All signs point in one direction: both goalkeepers are likely to be busy, and neither should feel safe.
Lineups packed with intent
Kompany’s expected XI underlines his attacking instincts. Bayern are likely to line up with Manuel Neuer behind a back four of Konrad Laimer, Jonathan Tah, Kim Min-jae and Josip Stanisic. Joshua Kimmich and Aleksandar Pavlovic offer control in midfield, while Michael Olise, Nathaniel Brown and Bryan Diaz support Harry Kane up front.
Stuttgart’s probable team reads like a side ready to trade punches. Fabian Bredlow should start in goal, with Clinton Nartey, Laurin Jeltsch, Jeff Chabot and Maximilian Mittelstädt across the back. Atakan Karazor’s absence reshapes the midfield, so it falls to Grischa Prömel and Angelo Stiller to set the tone, with Tiago Tomas, Deniz Undav, Chris Führich and Dzenan Pejcinovic providing the attacking threat.
Both managers know what this fixture tends to deliver. Each of the last 17 meetings between these clubs has produced at least three goals. Twelve of those went beyond that mark. Whenever Bayern and Stuttgart share a pitch, the scoreboard operator earns his money.
Allianz advantage still looms large
Pre-season did offer one jolt for Bayern: a shock defeat to Wehen. The context matters, though. Kompany rotated heavily, several first-team regulars were missing, and the result never felt like a reliable indicator of what this group looks like when the stakes are real.
By the end of last season, Bayern had found their edge again. Six straight wins, including statement victories over Aston Villa, RB Leipzig and Dortmund, re-established their authority. At home, they lost just once in the league. The Allianz remains one of Europe’s most unforgiving away assignments.
Stuttgart will cling to their own positives. A 4-0 dismantling of Hansa Rostock in the DFB-Pokal sharpened their attacking instincts ahead of this trip. They know they can score, and history says they usually do in this fixture. But history also reminds them of the damage Bayern can inflict.
The most recent meeting between these sides ended in a 3-0 Bayern win in the German Cup final, a ruthless display that underlined the gulf when the champions hit their stride. Stuttgart have not beaten Bayern in Munich since 2018. They arrive with belief, but also with scars.
Kane, again, at the heart of it
Harry Kane enters the new campaign as the league’s undisputed benchmark. The England captain walked away with the Bundesliga Golden Boot last season, his 36 league goals almost doubling the return of nearest challenger Denis Undav on 19. He did it with a mixture of relentlessness and efficiency that transformed Bayern’s attack.
The Super Cup offered another glimpse of his volume. Kane shared the highest shot count on the pitch with Olise, both taking five attempts. Only one of Kane’s efforts hit the target that night, but the underlying pattern matters far more than a single game. Across last season’s league campaign he unleashed 119 shots, 67 on target, averaging 2.53 shots on target per 90 minutes.
For a striker with his movement and service behind him, those numbers rarely stay quiet for long. Stuttgart know that better than most. Kane scored a hat-trick in his last outing against them and hit two hat-tricks against the Swabians across the season, finishing with eight goals in four head-to-head meetings. When he sees that white shirt and crest, he tends to smell blood.
Goals on the cards, pressure on Stuttgart
Everything about this matchup points in the same direction: a Bayern win in a game that refuses to stay under control. The champions’ home record, Stuttgart’s willingness to attack, the long-running trend of high-scoring clashes between the two – it all feeds into the sense of a wild opening night in Munich.
Bayern look primed to collect their first three points of the new campaign, and they rarely do it quietly. Stuttgart, for all their progress and ambition, step into a stadium where they almost always concede, often heavily, but usually punch back.
If Kompany’s Bayern really are beginning a quest to conquer Europe, this is the kind of fixture they must dominate – not just win, but impose themselves on. Stuttgart’s job is to make sure that, this time, the story doesn’t end with Kane walking off with the match ball again.
