Leverkusen vs Bochum

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Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen will host VfL Bochum at the BayArena on Wednesday in the last gameweek before the winter break.

With a victory over the weekend, Xabi Alonso's incredible team reaffirmed their standing as the Herbstmeisterschaft and became the Bundesliga winter champions.

Leverkusen defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 on Sunday, and now they are one match away from winning the whole first half of the season without a loss.

They scored 77 goals over the course of the weekend to extend their winning streak to 24 games across all competitions. Victor Boniface, Florian Wirtz, and Jeremie Frimpong once again played key roles in the victory over Frankfurt.

It was crucial to get back to winning ways after two consecutive league draws in exciting matches against Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund. This kept them four points ahead of Bayern Munich, who also triumphed on Sunday.

With 39 points out of a possible 45, Leverkusen's record-breaking start to the season is not surprising.

Particularly in all competitions, their home form has been outstanding; they have won 11 of their 12 games played at the BayArena and drawn the other, scoring an incredible 42 goals in the process.

Since they won't be playing for over four weeks, their biggest challenge will now be to come back from the break in the same shape and maintain the momentum they have established.

The Africa Cup of Nations is about to start, so when Alonso returns, they will also be missing five key players: Boniface, Edmond Tapsoba, Odilon Kossounou, Amine Adli, and Nathan Tella.

They still have one more obstacle to conquer, though, as they now take on the team that defeated them in a competitive match, even though they will start as clear favorites.

Leverkusen has won both of their meetings here by a score of zero since Bochum's promotion in 2021, but their last taste of defeat came on the last day of the season when they lost 3-0 away from home in May.

Early in the season, after Bochum lost all nine of their Bundesliga games, Thomas Letsch was under pressure, but the manager has seen an incredibly good reaction.

With just one loss in their previous seven games, the visitors have gained 12 points and are currently clear of the relegation zone.

They will be above the dotted line going into the Christmas break after an outstanding 3-0 victory over Union Berlin over the weekend moved them six points clear of the drop zone.

Although the most significant losses this season have been against Bayern and Stuttgart (7-0 and 5-0), Bochum has managed to hold both RB Leipzig and Dortmund to draws; still, this will be a far tougher test.