Bundesliga new season preview: "One Super, Many Strong" script is still there, and the European ticket battle is fierce

Xinhua News Agency, Berlin, August 19 (Reporter Zhao Jiantong) After the summer offseason in the turbulent transfer market, the 2025-2026 Bundesliga season will start on the 22nd, with Bayern Munich facing Leipzig at home. In the new season, can Bayern’s dominance be shaken? Which teams may surprise fans?

As in many seasons in the past, the Bundesliga still holds the script of "one super, many strong" in the new season.

Last season, Bayern won the "salad plate" with 82 points, leading the runner-up Leverkusen by 13 points, followed by Frankfurt and Dortmund - Bayern, who had achieved eleven consecutive championships, declared the return of the Bundesliga overlords.

Before the start of the new season, Bayern poached Jonatan Ta and Dias from Leverkusen and Liverpool respectively. However, the situation of Muller, Sane, Koeman leaving the team, and Musiara, Alfonso, Ito Yoshiki's injuries make Bayern, who is fighting on a multi-line basis, look like it is not impeccable in the new season. Bayern is currently in tug-of-war negotiations with Stuttgart on German young center Walter Mad, and recently it is reported that he wants to introduce Chelsea to the Premier League. In short, if Bayern wants to maintain dominance on multiple fronts in the new season, it must make a difference before the summer window is closed, otherwise the lineup depth issue may be dragged down at critical moments. In the "strongest" lineup, Leverkusen was the team that poses the greatest threat to Bayern in recent years. "Pharmaceutical Factory" has achieved quite good results in the past two seasons, winning the league runner-up last season, and ending Bayern's consecutive championship momentum in a season before that. Just when people thought the club would continue to make great progress, they chose to push back and start over and put a number of key personnel at high positions - many main players such as Wilz, Flynnon, and Tada and head coach Alonso left the team one after another. Leverkusen will usher in a reconstruction period in the new season, and it is difficult to challenge Bayern. It is a more pragmatic choice to first move into the new lineup at the beginning, stabilize the ranking and not fall behind.

In the "Challengers League" formed by upstream teams in the Bundesliga, Frankfurt and Dortmund, which narrowly locked in the Champions League qualification last season, did not change much. After Frankfurt let go of the team's first scorer Ekitic, he introduced Tang Anlu. In Dortmund, although the leading scorer Gilasi was able to stay in the team, the "Hornets" who sold their "thighs" every year still sent off Gittens, the main player on the wing. On the basis of basically retaining the main framework, the team introduced Job Bellingham. However, the problems of weak midfield and unstable defense criticized by fans are difficult to solve. Therefore, if Dortmund can maintain its European qualification in the new season, it will be considered as a good answer.

Other clubs expected to be qualified for European war include Leipzig, Freiburg and Stuttgart. Leipzig's performance last season was extremely unstable, and the team's "will be strong when facing strong, and when facing weak, they will be weak" style is obvious. Freiburg head coach Schuster won the German Coach of the Year award for his outstanding leadership performance last season. In the new season, he will also face the challenges and tests of the third-line battle between the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the Europa League with the team. Stuttgart's dark horse was very good last season and won the German Cup. Judging from the performance of the German Super Cup a few days ago, this team has very good strength in the midfield, but it still needs to strengthen it on the defensive end.

In terms of "relegation team", Heidenheim and St. Pauli both relegated thrillingly last season. Due to the lack of changes in the lineup in the new season, the overall strength cannot be overestimated. The overall lineup of the newly promoted Cologne has not changed much after entering the Bundesliga, and it may also fight for relegation in the new season. Hamburg, which has returned to the Bundesliga after many years, suffered three consecutive losses in the pre-season warm-up match, and its prospects are not expected to be too optimistic.