It's been an awful run of games for the Bundesliga's Bavarian champions, victories have been hard to come by and points are slipping fast out of their hands as RB Leipzig now astonishingly sit at the top of the Bundesliga table.
Bayern's form in the league has been poor to say the least, two victories from the last five games, including two draws and a defeat to arch-rivals, Borussia Dortmund has left the champions reeling and for Roger Schmidt's Leverkusen, there might never be a better time to put another dent into Bayern's title defence.
Leverkusen have had problems of their own this season, they still sit out of the European qualification spots and will need a solid performance at the back to keep out Bayern's attackers. Up front, Julian Brandt, Admir Mehmedi and Hakan Calhanoglu will look to combine and try and cause Bayern's defence some problems, whose weaknesses were exposed by FC Rostov in the champions league.
A victory would be a morale boost for Bayern
Bayern Munich and Carlo Ancelotti are in a bad moment in their season, so much was expected of the Italian to take the club ahead after Pep Guardiola's tenure brought a tactical revolution to the club. Things haven't gone well for the champions as the competition for the Bundesliga title has grown this season and it doesn't seem as though it is going to be another straight-forward season for the Bavarians.
Going into the Leverkusen game, Bayern would be relieved to have Jerome Boateng back from an injury scare as they still miss many key players for the game, including the likes of Manuel Neuer, Arturo Vidal, Arjen Robben, to name a few. A rotated side looks likely for the game, however, there is still enough quality in-depth for them to give Leverkusen a real test and Ancelotti will hope that his side can overturn this bad form and start looking more like the champions
History favours the Bavarian giants in this one, they have managed to emerge victorious and with a clean sheet five times out of the past six encounters with Leverkusen side.
Leverkusen will not back down without a fight
Roger Schmidt's men have had a disappointing start to the season and now sit 9th in the Bundesliga standings as they struggle to get any sort of momentum going for them this season.
As they look ahead to facing Bayern at the Allianz Arena, Leverkusen will surely have studied the mid-week Champions League game, in which Bayern shockingly lost against FC Rostov. There will be plenty to learn from that game for Schmidt and co.
Creating chances will not be a problem for the away side, as they have enough creativity in their ranks with Calhanoglu and the likes of Mehmedi and Brandt to threaten the Bayern defence that has looked shaky in recent games.
Finishing chances will be of huge importance in this game, and although in the past, Leverkusen have struggled to score against their Bavarian counterparts, they will be hoping this game is a different story.
Team News
Bayern have huge injury troubles going into this game, missing key players Neuer, Javi Martinez, Robben, while Vidal will miss this fixture against his former team through suspension.
Predicted XI:(4-3-3): Ulreich,Lahm,Boateng,Hummels,Alaba;Kimmich,Alonso,Thiago;Muller,Lewandowski,Ribery.
Leverkusen don't have any injury concerns ahead of the game, with Karim Bellarabi still out with an injury until end of December.
Predicted XI (4-4-2) Leno,Henrichs,Tah,Toprak,Wendell;Kampl;Baumgartlinger,Aranguiz,Brandt;Mehmedi,Calhanoglu.