When the Bundesliga resumes on Friday night with FC Bayern’s top-of-the-table clash away to RB Leipzig, it will be some time since Julian Nagelsmann’s side’s last competitive match. However, 69 days on from the 2-0 success at FC Schalke 04 before the World Cup break, the Bavarians are aiming to seamlessly continue their run of 10 consecutive wins at the end of 2022. But can you carry over such a run into the new year after a long break?
Kimmich: Work our way into a flow again
“It’s not all gone but we have to work out way into that flow again. We’ve got a tough away game at Leipzig to start, which will be a test for us,” said Joshua Kimmich in a press conference during the training camp in Doha. The upturn in form at the start of this winter not only resulted in the German record champions’ longest winning run under Nagelsmann, but also delighted the fans with great football.
“The weeks leading up to the World Cup were brilliant, we were playing perfectly,” summarised Leon Goretzka in an interview. The 27-year-old is obviously hoping “we can pick up where we left off”. It’s the 16th time since their promotion to the Bundesliga that Bayern have strung together 10 or more competitive wins in a row. As ever, though, there may be more to come.
Not long since record winning streak
You don’t have to look too far back to see what is possible in this area for the Bavarians. Between February and September 2020, FCB managed an incredible 23 consecutive victories, setting a record in Europe’s top five leagues that still stands and picking up the treble of the Champions League, Bundesliga and DFB Cup – plus the UEFA Super Cup – in the process.
Bayern's longest winning streaks in competitive games
| Position | Consecutive wins | Frequency/period |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | 23 | 1 time (Feb - Sep 2020) |
| 2. | 14 | 2 times (most recently Dec 2017 - Feb 2018*) |
| 4. | 13 | 2 times (most recently Dec 2013 - Mar 2014*) |
| 6. | 12 | 1 time (Aug - Oct 2015) |
| 7. | 11 | 5 times (most recently Oct - Dec 2013*) |
| *last run with this exact number of wins |
Of course, Bayern are still some way off that mark, but runs of 12, 13 or 14 wins are not rare in the club’s history. It’s over 42 years since they first hit double figures at professional level: in the early part of the 1980/81 season, coach Pál Csernai’s side came out on top in 14 consecutive games in league, cup and European Cup. Bayern equalled that run in the winter of 2017/18, shortly after Jupp Heynckes had begun his final stint as coach.
Setbacks don’t hinder Bayern
What’s more, the end of a good run can often be the trigger for the start of a new one, as Bayern have proven many times before. In 2013, when a 3-2 defeat at home to Manchester City in the Champions League put an end to an 11-match winning streak, the team – then coached by Pep Guardiola – responded immediately with 13 victories on the trot from December 2013 to March 2014. The record run of 23 wins in 2020 ended with a 4-1 reverse at Hoffenheim in late September, but even that was followed by 10 consecutive victories for Hansi Flick’s men.
Friday evening will reveal if Bayern are heading in that direction again. With three points in their first match of 2023 at Leipzig, Kimmich and Co can get closer to past runs. “There we’ll see if we can continue our run from the end of last year. That’s obviously the aim but it requires a lot of work,” said Bayern’s number six. The Reds already know how to continue a run like this.
Our review of the first half of the Bundesliga season:
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