Throughout its history, the UEFA Champions League has thrown up some magical ties pitting Europe’s elite against one another, but there’s something extra special when it involves two clubs from the same nation. That’s exactly what we will see in March when Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen - the Bundesliga’s top two - face off with a place in the quarter-finals on the line.

Follow Bayern vs. Leverkusen in the last 16 HERE!

In the last 18 months, Leverkusen against Bayern has become the Bundesliga’s top fixture, with the Werkself seeking to end the Bavarians' recent dominance of the competition. Last season, Leverkusen blew every team they faced out of the water as they won the title unbeaten with an incredible 90 points.

Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen celebrated winning the Bundesliga without a single defeat! - IMAGO/Laci Perenyi

This season, Bayern have returned to their imperious best as they lead the Bundesliga table by eight points, with Leverkusen in second. That said, both meetings between the sides this season have ended in draws, with Leverkusen extremely unlucky not to close the gap at the top to five points last weekend. Xabi Alonso also remains unbeaten against Bayern in his six matches at the Bayer helm.

March’s Champions League meeting could prove to be a real classic between two of the best teams in Europe, with that extra bit of spice being added by the domestic rivalry that has developed in the last two years.

Watch: Leverkusen 0-0 Bayern - highlights 

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Although rare, the Champions League has seen a number of classics fought out between two domestic rivals, with many of those taking place between the Bundesliga’s best sides. Finals too have seen their fair share of domestic club clashes with no less than eight such fixtures taking place. This includes some classic Champions League final nights such as Real Madrid’s 4-1 extra-time win over Atlético Madrid, Manchester United’s penalty shootout victory over Chelsea, and of course the 2013 Der Klassiker where Arjen Robben broke Borussia Dortmund hearts.

Regarding all German affairs, the Champions League has seen three such fixtures, all of which involved Bayern. Two of these took place in the quarter-finals; one against Kaiserslautern and one against Dortmund. The third was of course the 2013 Klassiker.

Watch: Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund - Legends Match

Borussia Dortmund 1-2 Bayern Munich, 2012/13 final

The most infamous of the all-German Champions League games is of course the final of 2013 between Dortmund and Bayern. Both sides were stacked full of stars including many, such as Robert Lewandowski, who would later go on to cross the divide between the two clubs. Jürgen Klopp’s Dortmund side had pulled off unbelievable results to reach the final including two 90th-minute goals to beat Malaga and a semi-final victory over Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid, in which Lewandowski scored four in the first leg. Unfortunately for Dortmund, Jupp Heynckes’s Bayern were an unstoppable force that season.

After a goalless opening half, the game sparked into life in the 60th minute when Croatian Mario Mandžukić squeezed the ball home from close range after good work from Robben to make it 1-0. The Bavarian’s joy was short-lived as just seven minutes later, İlkay Gündoğan made it 1-1 from the spot following a foul from Dante on Marco Reus. It appeared the game was heading towards extra-time until Robben latched onto Franck Ribéry’s flick in the 89th minute. Under heavy pressure, the Dutchman held off the desperate challenges of the Dortmund defenders before half-scooping the ball past Roman Weidenfeller to cause absolute pandemonium.

Arjen Robben was the hero in 2013 as Bayern beat Dortmund to the Champions League trophy. - 2013 AFP

Bayern Munich 6-0 (on aggregate) Kaiserslautern, 1998/99 quarter-final

Although Kaiserslautern now play in Bundesliga 2, in the 90s they were one of the best clubs in Germany, winning the Bundesliga both in 1991 and 1998. By winning the latter, Lautern became the only newly promoted club ever to win the Bundesliga.

In the 1999 quarter-final, the defending Bundesliga champions faced soon-to-be champions Bayern in an incredibly one-sided tie. The Bavarians overcame the Red Devils 2-0 at home in the first leg before blowing their domestic rivals away 4-0 at the Fritz-Walter-Stadion to complete a 6-0 aggregate thrashing.

That season, Bayern would go on to make the final where they suffered the agony of conceding two 90th-minute goals against Manchester United to lose 2-1.

Carsten Jancker helped Bayern past Kaiserslautern back in 1999. - imago/WEREK

Borussia Dortmund 1-0 (on aggregate) Bayern Munich, 1997/98 quarter-final

When Dortmund and Bayern met in the quarter-finals in 1998, it was the first time that two clubs from the same nation had ever faced each other in the Champions League. This time, it was BVB that came out on top over the two legs. The first fixture between the two sides finished goalless in Munich. The return leg in Dortmund also saw no goals in 90 minutes, prompting extra-time, where Stéphane Chapuisat eventually struck the decisive goal for Borussia.

Having just won the competition the previous season, this victory gave Dortmund real hope of winning the competition back-to-back, but they were unable to overcome eventual winners Real Madrid in the semi-final.

Dortmund emerged victorious against old foes Bayern when they met in the 1998 Champions League quarter-finals. - IMAGO/LALMAND

Although the Champions League in its current form has only existed since 1992, its predecessor, the European Cup, also saw several German sides meet. However, those games were between East and West German sides. Two of those games were round-of-16 games that involved Bayern. In 1973, they overcame Dynamo Dresden in a thriller that ended 7-6 on aggregate. The following year the now record champions beat Magdeburg 5-3 on aggregate. On both occasions, the Bavarians went on to win the competition as part of their hat-trick of consecutive European Cup triumphs.

Two other European Cup fixtures also saw East and West Germany clash with both fixtures involving Berlin’s BFC Dynamo; a club that later went insolvent before being reformed in the 2000s. In both of these fixtures, Dynamo lost their first-round matches. The first was against Hamburg in 1982, where they lost 3-1 on aggregate. They then took on Werder Bremen in 1988, winning the first leg 3-0 at home only to lose the away fixture 5-0 to go out 5-3 on aggregate.

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Bayer 04 Leverkusen

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