Bundesliga Matchday 6: Surprise package Wolfsburg look to keep up pace

James Nalton

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Wout Weghorst's Wolfsburg will hope to continue their strong early-season form

The Bundesliga table is taking a familiar shape, with Bayern Munich leading the way at the summit — level on points with Wolfsburg but ahead on goal difference.

There are also familiar names at the top of the goalscoring charts, with star strikers Erling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski both notching seven goals from their opening five matches.

It is Bayern who kick off the weekend’s action and Die Roten will be looking to pile the pressure on their title challengers with a fifth victory of the season tonight.

Greuther Furth vs Bayern Munich (7.30pm, Friday)

This evening's mismatch sees the league’s defending champions face basement club Greuther Furth.

Even at this early stage of the season, there is already a 26-goal difference between the two clubs.

Bayern are unbeaten, while 2020-21 2.Bundesliga runners-up Furth have just one point — and the rest of the stats do not look good for the home side either.

FCB have lost just one of their last 48 Bundesliga matches against newly-promoted sides, winning 44 of them and drawing three. They have also scored in all of those games, with an average of 3.2 strikes per outing.

Greuther Furth are still without a home Bundesliga win in 19 attempts — no team has played as many home matches in the top flight without winning.

Hoffenheim vs Wolfsburg (Saturday, 2.30pm)

Manager Mark van Bommel has built the Bundesliga's most resilient defence at Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg are going toe-to-toe with Bayern at the top of the table and will be looking to maintain their impressive early-season form at Hoffenheim.

The Wolves have scored 13 fewer goals than Die Roten across the first five games but are in such a lofty position because of their tight defence.

Wolfsburg have the joint-best defensive record in the league along with Mainz, having conceded just two goals to date.

Mainz are also the only team with a lower expected goals against (xGA) tally (3.2) than Wolfsburg (3.8) in 2021-22.

Hoffenheim were convincing 4-0 winners against Augsburg on the opening day of the season but are now without a win in four league games — drawing two and losing two.

Bayer Leverkusen vs Mainz (Saturday, 2.30pm)

Patrik Schick has taken his Euro 2020 form into the current domestic campaign with four goals to date

Just goal difference separates Bayer Leverkusen and Mainz after five games, with the former’s goalscoring prowess edging the latter’s miserly defence.

Only Haaland and Lewandowski have more goals in the league than Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick, who has found the net four times in five games.

Die Werkself are unbeaten in their last seven Bundesliga matches against Mainz, having won six of them.

Their opponents have failed to score in their last seven Bundesliga fixtures in Leverkusen, so will need to maintain their defensive solidity in order to get something from this game.

Eintracht Frankfurt vs Koln (Saturday, 2.30pm)

Eintracht Frankfurt are without a win this season — and are still searching for a victory under new head coach Oliver Glasner — but have drawn four of their five league matches so far.

Die Adler’s one defeat came in a 5-2 reverse against Borussia Dortmund on the opening day of the campaign.

This is the 101st meeting between these two sides in the Bundesliga — the only current top-flight team Koln have played more often than Frankfurt is Borussia Monchengladbach (103 times).

Koln forward Anthony Modeste already has four goals in 2021-22 and will be looking to top the German scoring chart after this weekend.

Anthony Modeste will be hoping to match his best ever Bundesliga goal tally of 25 strikes in 2016-17

Borussia Monchengladbach vs Borussia Dortmund (Saturday, 5.30pm)

Dortmund will be hoping to continue their impressive form in this battle of the Borussias on Saturday evening.

Marco Rose’s side have won their last four games in all competitions, scoring a total of 13 goals in those matches.

After 11 consecutive Bundesliga defeats to Dortmund, Monchengladbach celebrated their first win in this fixture since April 2015, when they beat BVB 4-2 in January — under Rose’s leadership.

This means that for the first time since 2013-14, the visitors could win two league games in a row against Die Borussen.

Dortmund have scored in each of their last 15 league games against Monchengladbach (36 goals in total), which is their longest active scoring run against a current Bundesliga opponent.