On Friday night, second-place Bayer Leverkusen hosts 17th-place VFL Bochum at the BayArena on matchday 27 of the Bundesliga.
Date: 28/03/2025
Location: BayArena
Time: 7:30pm
The last head-to-head meeting resulted in a 1-1 draw back on 9th November as Bochum’s Koji Miyoshi scored a dramatic 89th-minute equaliser cancelled out Patrik Schick’s 18th-minute opener. Meanwhile, the last meeting at the BayArena saw Leverkusen thrash Bochum 4-0 in December 2023 where Schick fired in a hat-trick, while Victor Boniface also got on the scoresheet.
Bayer Leverkusen are having another solid season, as they are second in the Bundesliga, six points behind league leaders Bayern Munich with six games to go, sitting on 56 points, meaning that there is a slim chance of retaining last season’s Bundesliga crown.
Alonso’s men are in contention for a domestic treble, as they won the DFL-Supercup at the expense of Stuttgart (4-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw). Leverkusen are also in the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal, where they’ll face lower-league opposition in the shape of Arminia Bielefeld having progressed past FC Koln (3-2), Bayern Munich (1-0), SV Elversberg (3-0) and Carl Zeiss Jena (1-0).
In the Champions League, Leverkusen finished sixth in the Group Stage with 16 points from eight matches, however, they met their domestic rivals, Bayern Munich in the Round of 16 and were beaten 5-0 on aggregate.
On the other hand, Bochum are having a season of struggle, as they are seven points adrift of 15th-place St. Pauli, meaning that their best hope it to qualify for the relegation play-off as they are just one point behind 16th-place Heidenheim on 18 points from 26 matches. Staggeringly, it took Bochum 15 games to earn a league victory this campaign, when they beat Heidenheim 2-0 on 22nd December.
As far as the DFB Pokal goes, Bochum were knocked in the First Round by Jahn Regensburg via 1-0 scoreline.
Bundesliga 
