How do Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart stack up ahead of the DFB Cup final?
Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich take on VfB Stuttgart in the DFB Cup final on Saturday 23 May. Vincent Kompany’s side have already beaten the Swabians three times this season, but Sebastian Hoeneß’s charges are determined to defend their crown at Berlin’s Olympiastadion.
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Despite losing only one of their past 15 ties in the competition, the odds are stacked against Stuttgart ahead of the 2025/26 showpiece. Bayern have been sensational this season, sweeping all before them in a remarkable Bundesliga campaign and only narrowly missing out on the final of the UEFA Champions League.
They got the better of VfB in the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup at the MHP Arena back in August before cruising to a 5-0 win in Stuttgart in early December, thanks to a Harry Kane treble. The Bavarians then completed a hat-trick of wins over Stuttgart this season with a 4-2 victory at the Allianz Arena, which clinched the Bundesliga title with four rounds of fixtures left to play.
Who can outscore the other?
And yet, if any team are capable of getting the better of Kompany’s charges in the capital, it is surely a VfB side who plundered more goals than any other team in Germany’s top flight this season - apart from Bayern, of course.
Thirty-one of Stuttgart’s 71 efforts in the league came from Ermedin Demirović and Deniz Undav, who formed a formidable partnership in the second half of the campaign in particular. Indeed, in Stuttgart’s first 12 league games of 2026, Union Berlin and St. Pauli were the only sides to stop both players from finding the back of the net.
Undav’s astonishing purple patch between November and April - in which he bagged 17 goals in 18 top-flight appearances - proved key in helping Stuttgart maintain their top-four push, while Demirović struck three times in VfB’s final four games to fire Hoeneß’s team over the line - and back into the Champions League.
Scoring against Bayern may not be beyond the Swabians, but keeping them out at the other end is another matter. The champions ended the Bundesliga season on a record 122 goals, while their extraordinary front three of Kane, Michael Olise and Luis Díaz racked up 104 goal contributions in the league alone, becoming the first Bundesliga trio to pass the century mark since data collection began in 1988.
England captain Kane’s final-day treble against Cologne lifted him on to 36 league goals - and 58 in all competitions. The 32-year-old is the first player in Bundesliga history to win the Torjägerkanone in each of his first three seasons in Germany, while Robert Lewandowski is the only other player to have claimed the top scorer prize three times in a row.
Player of the Season Olise, meanwhile, finished on 19 assists - just two shy of Thomas Müller’s all-time record - and 15 goals, becoming the first player since 2019/20 to contribute at least 15 of each in a single season. Colombian magician Díaz wasn’t far behind, hitting 15 goals and 14 assists in an outstanding debut campaign following his move from Liverpool last summer.
Bayern make light work of tricky cup opposition
On paper, Kompany’s charges have had the more difficult run to the final, having overcome Cologne, Union and Bayer Leverkusen away - not to mention RB Leipzig at home - to rubber-stamp their ticket to the Olympiastadion.
The ease with which they swept Leverkusen aside in the semi-finals will leave them confident of dispatching Stuttgart this weekend. Only a sensational performance from Werkself goalkeeper Mark Flekken prevented Bayern from scoring more than just the two goals at the BayArena back on 22 April.
They did, however, need a stoppage-time winner from Kane to get the better of 3. Liga side Wehen Wiesbaden in the first round, after a double from Fatih Kaya had cancelled out earlier efforts from Kane and Olise.
Like Bayern, holders Stuttgart only narrowly made it through to the second round of the competition after being pushed all the way by Bundesliga 2 side Eintracht Braunschweig, who were eventually beaten 8-7 on penalties after an enthralling 4-4 draw after extra time.
Victories - and clean sheets - over Mainz, Bochum and Holstein Kiel set up a semi-final with Freiburg, who struck first at the MHP Arena through Maximilian Eggestein before Undav equalised with 20 minutes remaining.
With the tie edging towards a penalty shoot-out, Tiago Tomás converted Badredine Bouanani’s cross in the 119th minute as Stuttgart secured back-to-back DFB Cup finals for the first time in their history. If Hoeneß’s side can carry that momentum into the showpiece, they stand a good chance of defending their title.
May 2024 victory offers hope for Stuttgart
Despite securing Champions League football on the final day of the season, Stuttgart form has been mixed since putting four goals past Hamburg on 12 April.
A 3-1 win over Leverkusen on the penultimate weekend is their only victory in 90 minutes in their last six games - a run which includes a last-gasp 3-3 draw at Hoffenheim, a 1-1 draw at home to struggling Werder Bremen and a 2-2 draw at out-of-sorts Eintracht Frankfurt.
They have beaten Bayern only once in their last 15 meetings, but that 3-1 triumph in May 2024 featured the majority of the current first team, including goalkeeper Alexander Nübel, midfielders Atakan Karazor and Angelo Stiller, wingers Jamie Leweling and Chris Führich, and Undav.
Bayern, though, have won 12 of those 15 encounters, netting 18 goals in each of the teams’ last five Bundesliga meetings alone. There has been little sign of Kompany’s team taking their foot off the gas since clinching a 35th top-flight title, with Paris Saint-Germain the only side to beat them since January.
A 5-1 final-day win over Cologne - their 12th win in 14 games since losing to Augsburg in their only league defeat of the campaign - was the ideal dress rehearsal ahead of what should be a mouthwatering showdown in Berlin on Saturday evening.
The Bavarians may be favourites, but write Stuttgart off at your peril.
