Bayern Munich face early season test in onerous Autumn fixture list
Serial winners in Germany and regular protagonists in the latter stages of the UEFA Champions League, Bayern Munich are no strangers to difficult runs of fixtures. Even by the Bavarians’ phenomenal standards, though, their seven-game stretch before the next international break in November is a demanding one – to put it very mildly.
A UEFA Champions League trip to Norway is an unenviable task at the best of times, but Tuesday’s game at Viking Stavanger is one of the gentler assignments in a set of fixtures featuring games against the reigning Premier League champions, the current Bundesliga leaders, and Bayern’s perennial rivals in Germany’s top flight.
After taking on free-scoring RB Leipzig on Matchday 6, Vincent Kompany’s side welcome English title-holders Arsenal to the Allianz Arena in the Champions League a week on Wednesday before travelling to Freiburg, who currently occupy top spot in the Bundesliga after dropping only two points from 15 available so far.
Those who expect a midweek DFB Cup tie at home to Magdeburg to offer brief respite may want to think again. One of Germany’s many sleeping giants, Petrik Sander’s side currently occupy fourth place in Bundesliga 2 after a superb start to the campaign and will travel to Munich on 28 October brimming with confidence - and with little to lose.
Then there’s the small matter of the first Bundesliga Klassiker of the 2026/27 campaign as Borussia Dortmund visit the Allianz Arena three days later. Having been handed a comparatively kinder set of fixtures in October, BVB will be determined to finish the month where they started it - on Bayern’s regular perch at the Bundesliga summit.
The 2025/26 double winners kick off November with one of the trickiest assignments in the European football calendar - a trip to Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid - before another awkward away fixture four days later, at Urs Fischer’s Mainz.
Granted, in all four corresponding Bundesliga fixtures last term, the Bavarians emerged with all three points on each occasion.
They put six past Leipzig on the opening night of the 2025/26 season, with Harry Kane bagging a hat-trick and Michael Olise netting a superb double.
Dortmund were beaten 2-1 in Munich on Matchday 7. Indeed, Die Schwarzgelben haven’t tasted victory in the league at the Allianz Arena since Matchday 30 of the 2013/14 campaign – by which point Bayern had long been crowned Bundesliga champions.
However, Kompany’s charges required late salvage operations to get the better of Freiburg and Mainz last season, scoring twice in stoppage time to win 3-2 at the Europa-Park Stadion before recovering from a 3-1 deficit to triumph 4-3 at the MEWA Arena.
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That was only their second victory in six Bundesliga visits to the 05ers, who won each of the other four meetings on their own patch (2-1 in 2020/21 and 2024/25, and 3-1 in 2021/22 and 2022/23).
Arsenal, meanwhile, were one of only three teams - Augsburg and Paris Saint-Germain being the others - to defeat Bayern last season. Lennart Karl was on target at Emirates Stadium on Matchday 5 of the 2025/26 league phase, but that goal was not enough to prevent the Gunners from ending the Bavarians’ unbeaten start in all competitions.
As for Atletico, Bayern have never beaten the Madrid outift away from home in European competition. Only once in three attempts have they avoided defeat at the Metropolitano – in a 1-1 draw during the 2020/21 group stage.
Meetings with Magdeburg, understandably, have been few and far between down the years, but fans of a certain vintage may recall a shock penalty shoot-out defeat to the East German outfit at the same stage of the 2000/01 DFB Cup – the teams’ last encounter.
And while Kompany will be pleased enough with his team’s start to 2026/27, the last few weeks have not been as straightforward as some might have expected.
The 2-2 draw at Augsburg on Matchday 5 is a case in point. Bayern were behind for nearly 80 of the 97 minutes at the WWK Arena – having conceded the fastest goal in Bundesliga history – and ultimately needed a late Ismael Saibari effort to preserve their unbeaten record.
They were pushed all the way by Bundesliga newcomers Elversberg on Matchday 3 before eventually triumphing 2-1 at the Ursapharm-Arena – eight days after being held to a goalless draw by fellow promoted club Schalke in Gelsenkirchen.
Watch: Highlights from Bayern's draw with Augsburg
Bayern may have emerged from those tricky encounters with their unbeaten run intact, but they might not be so lucky against more ruthless opposition.
And, with ground to make up on the teams above them in the Bundesliga standings, they are also under more pressure than they might be accustomed to at this stage of a season.
Whatever you make of their upcoming fixtures, there is clearly no margin for error for Kompany and his star-studded team over the next four weeks.
